English

Particle production and reheating in the inflationary universe

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2009-01-08 v2

Abstract

Thermal field theory is applied to particle production rates in inflationary models, leading to new results for catalysed, or two-stage decay, where massive fields act as decay channels for the production of light fields. A numerical investigation of the Bolztmann equation in an expanding universe shows that the particle distributions produced during small amplitude inflaton oscillations or alongside slowly moving inflaton fields can thermalise.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.2039,
  title  = {Particle production and reheating in the inflationary universe},
  author = {Chris M Graham and Ian G Moss},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.2039},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

16 pages, 12 figures, LaTeX, extra references in v2