Long, Andrew J2024-08-302024-08-302024-082024-08-05August 202Ling, Siyang. Cosmological gravitational particle production of dark matter during inflation and beyond. (2024). PhD diss., Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/117824https://hdl.handle.net/1911/117824Cosmological gravitational particle production (CGPP) is a viable production mechanism for dark matter. Spin-0, spin-1/2, spin-3/2, spin-2 fields can be produced via CGPP during inflation and reheating, and the relics can be dark matter candidates. Chapter 1 of this thesis contains the framework of CGPP, which is based on quantum field theory in curved spacetime and inflationary cosmology. Chapter 2 contains a study of CGPP in the context of alpha-attractor inflationary models. Chapter 3 contains a method for analytically evaluating CGPP of fermions, namely the Exact WKB (EWKB) method, which is based on Stokes phenomenon. Chapter 4 contains a study of CGPP of massive spin-2 fields. Chapter 5 contains a study of phenomenology of ultralight vector dark matter with nonminimal interactions with gravity.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.cosmologydark matterquantum field theory in curved space timecosmological gravitational particle productionexact WKB methodThesis2024-08-30