Dark matter and inflation - one and the same? [newscientist]

[kurt.physics]

New Scientist has a page on a new theory, proposed by Andrew Liddle, says that maybe one particle is responsible for inflation and dark-matter, its called the inflaton

The inflaton has weird pressure properties that we don't see in everyday particles

It goes on to say that Liddle and his colleagues realized that if some inflaton particles survived after the intense burst of expansion during inflation, their mass would become important in attracting surrounding matter.

"By the late stages of inflation and forever afterwards, the expansion rate has slowed down so that the particle mass becomes important, and the particles then behave as massive dark matter particles exhibiting gravitational attraction," he explains.

(if you want to see it, click this link http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12651-dark-matter-and-inflation--one-and-the-same.html)

=============What do yous guys think? Me, I am still taking it in! lol :)

 

[hellfire]

It is hard enough to find out the right fundamental properties of dark matter particles that account for the observable features of galaxy rotation curves and formation of large scale structure. In the last years the observational constraints have lead to the formulation of very specific different proposals and models that go beyond the standard cold dark matter model, such as warm dark matter, self-interacting dark matter, etc. So, why should the inflaton explain inflation and additionally provide the bonus of explaining the complex phenomenology associated to dark matter? This question I would see as a fundamental one to be answered. I did not found the paper that this press article refers to.

 

[EL]

I did not found the paper that this press article refers to.

This is at least one of them:
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0605205