Related papers: Reheating induced by competing decay modes
We study models in which the inflaton is coupled to two otherwise decoupled sectors, and the effect of preheating and related processes on their energy densities during the evolution of the universe. Over most of parameter space, preheating…
We present a detailed and systematic analysis of the coarse-grained, nonequilibrium dynamics of a scalar inflaton field coupled to a fermion field in the latter stages of the reheating period of inflationary cosmology. We derive coupled…
We consider the effects of fragmentation on the post-inflationary epoch of reheating. In simple single field models of inflation, an inflaton condensate undergoes an oscillatory phase once inflationary expansion ends. The equation of state…
We present the first fully non-linear calculation of inflaton decay. We map inflaton decay onto an equivalent classical problem and solve the latter numerically. In the $\lambda\phi^4$ model, we find that parametric resonance develops…
We study the instability of a scalar field at the end of hybrid inflation, using both analytical techniques and numerical simulations. We improve previous studies by taking the inflaton field fully into account, and show that the range of…
Recently, it has been shown that during preheating the entropy modes circulating in the loops, which correspond to the inflaton decay products, meaningfully modify the cosmological correlation functions at superhorizon scales. In this…
We use classical lattice simulations in 3+1 dimensions to study the interplay between the resonant production of particles during preheating and the subsequent decay of these into a set of secondary species. We choose to work in a…
We numerically investigate the decay, via parametric resonance, of the inflaton with an m^2 phi^2 potential into a scalar matter field with a symmetry breaking potential. We consider the case where symmetry breaking takes place during…
We investigate a novel reheating scenario proceeding through $s$-channel inflaton annihilation, mediated by a massive scalar. If the inflaton $\phi$ oscillates around the minimum of a monomial potential $\propto \phi^{n}$, we reveal the…
We study the decay of scalar fields, in particular the inflaton, into lighter scalars in a De Sitter spacetime background. After providing a practical definition of the rate, we focus on the case of an inflaton interacting with a massless…
We study the decay of the inflaton in a renormalizable two scalar theory. Since the dynamics of the system is dominated by states with large occupation numbers which admit a semiclassical description, the decay can be studied by solving the…
In an alternative mechanism recently proposed, adiabatic cosmological perturbations are generated at the decay of the inflaton field due to small fluctuations of its coupling to matter. This happens whenever the coupling is governed by the…
If the inflaton is a heavy scalar field, it may equilibrate slower than some other degrees of freedom, e.g. non-Abelian gauge bosons. In this case, perturbations in the inflaton field and in a thermal plasma coexist from a given moment…
We show how the quantum to classical transition of the cosmological fluctuations produced during inflation can be described by means of the influence functional and the master equation. We split the inflaton field into the system-field…
In the context of single field inflation, models with a quadratic potential and models with a natural potential with subplanckian decay constant are in tension with the Planck data. We show that, when embedded in a two-field model with an…
We consider the non-equilibrium evolution of the inflaton field coupled to both lighter scalars and fermions. The dissipational dynamics of this field is studied and found to be quite different than that believed in inflationary models. In…
We investigate the effects of large inhomogeneities in both the inflaton field and its momentum. We find that in general, large kinetic perturbations reduce the number of e-folds of inflation. In particular, we observe that inflationary…
Coupled, multi-field models of inflation can provide several attractive features unavailable in the case of a single inflaton field. These models have a rich dynamical structure resulting from the interaction of the fields and their…
We consider the influence of mode - mode coupling in the inflaton field on the spectrum of primordial fluctuations. To this end, we formulate a phenomenological model where the inflaton fluctuations are treated as a fluid undergoing…
We show how the quantum to classical transition of the cosmological fluctuations produced during inflation can be described by means of the influence functional and the master equation. We split the inflaton field into the system-field…