Higher order Hubble-induced phase transitions for gravitational production of dark matter

This thesis presents a new mechanism for gravitational production of dark matter (DM), with the goal of generating the current observed DM abundance across a broad parameter space. We construct a theoretical model based on second-order gravitational couplings and systematically examine its dynamics and efficiency.

Using both analytical approximations and a detailed parameter scan involving ~200 simulations, we explored the model’s behavior for various parameter choices. This extensive numerical investigation allowed us to derive fitting functions that accurately interpolate the results across the entire allowed parameter space.

The results demonstrate that our model can consistently produce DM to the required abundance over a wide range of parameter values, confirming its flexibility and robustness. This work serves as a foundational study, offering a simplified yet powerful framework that can be extended and refined for more comprehensive models of gravitationally produced DM.