Nonperturbative Dynamics Of Reheating After Inflation: A Review
Abstract
Our understanding of the state of the universe between the end of inflation and big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is incomplete. The dynamics at the end of inflation are rich and a potential source of observational signatures. Reheating, the energy transfer between the inflaton and Standard Model fields (possibly through intermediaries) and their subsequent thermalization, can provide clues to how inflation fits in with known high-energy physics. We provide an overview of our current understanding of the nonperturbative, nonlinear dynamics at the end of inflation, some salient features of realistic particle physics models of reheating, and how the universe reaches a thermal state before BBN. In addition, we review the analytical and numerical tools available in the literature to study preheating and reheating and discuss potential observational signatures from this fascinating era.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1410.3808,
title = {Nonperturbative Dynamics Of Reheating After Inflation: A Review},
author = {Mustafa A. Amin and Mark P. Hertzberg and David I. Kaiser and Johanna Karouby},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1410.3808},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
v1: 44 pages, 9 figures. Invited review for the International Journal of Modern Physics D. For v2: Minor changes in text; 19 references added. For v3: Minor changes in text; 16 references added; similar to version to be published by IJMPD