High Energy Physics

Non minimal couplings of scalar fields to gravity are a generic feature of Lagrangian formulations of gravity. Although challenging to probe at low energies and small curvature, such couplings can play a crucial role in cosmological setups. We focus on their impact in the production of scalar dark matter and its interplay with inflationary physics. We show how the standard non-thermal production mechanism of scalar dark matter, the misalignment mechanism, is modified, and explore how alternative scenarios like production from inflationary fluctuations become viable. We study potentially observable features of these scenarios, such as the enhancement of dark matter substructure at small scales and the generation of an isocurvature component in the fluctuations of the CMB.

The averaged null energy condition (ANEC) can be used to put constraints on the scaling dimensions of operators in a local CFTs. In some cases these are stronger than the unitarity bounds. I will consider four dimensional N=1 superconformal field theories (SCFTs) and discuss bounds on generic long and protected multiplets with spin (j,0). Some of them can be obtained analytically and others can be studied by means of a simple semidefinite programming problem. I will also briefly mention the consequences for N=2,4 SCFTs. Based on [1905.09293].

In QFT, the renormalization group is usually formulated in Euclidean signature. I will discuss time-dependent probes of the RG, in Lorentzian signature, and derive new dynamical constraints that govern the spread of local operators. Through a chain of Wick rotations and dualities, the same methods lead to new sum rules for inflationary correlators, which relate observable quantities like the inflationary speed of sound to properties of the UV.