Related papers: Dissipative Effects on Reheating after Inflation
We present a detailed examination of thermalization after inflation for perturbative inflaton decay. Different interactions among particles in the plasma of inflaton decay products are considered and it will be shown that 2 -> 2 scatterings…
We point out that inflaton decay products acquire plasma masses during the reheating phase following inflation. The plasma masses may render inflaton decay kinematicaly forbidden, causing the temperature to remain frozen for a period at a…
In the presence of self-interactions, the post-inflationary evolution of the inflaton field is driven into the non-linear regime by the resonant growth of its fluctuations. The once spatially homogeneous coherent inflaton is converted into…
We discuss thermalization through perturbative inflaton decay at the end of inflation. We find that a thermal plasma should form well before all inflatons have decayed, unless all gauge symmetries are badly broken during that epoch.…
We consider the conditions for the decay products of perturbative inflaton decay to thermalize. The importance of considering the full spectrum of inflaton decay products in the thermalization process is emphasized. It is shown that the…
Reheating after inflation occurs due to particle production by the oscillating inflaton field. In this paper we describe the perturbative approach to reheating, and then concentrate on effects beyond the perturbation theory. They are…
The theory of reheating of the Universe after inflation is developed. The transition from inflation to the hot Universe turns out to be strongly model-dependent and typically consists of several stages. Immediately after inflation the field…
We perform a systematic analysis of dark matter production during post-inflationary reheating. Following the period of exponential expansion, the inflaton begins a period of damped oscillations as it decays. These oscillations and the…
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…
The time dependence of the temperature during the reheating process is studied. We consider the thermal feedback effects of the produced particles on the effective dissipation rate of the inflaton field, which can lead to enhanced…
Reheating after inflation can occur through inflaton decay or efficient parametric resonant production of particles from the oscillation of the inflaton. If the particles produced interact with scalars that were light during inflation, then…
In order for an inflationary universe to evolve into a hot universe, a process known as reheating is required. However, the precise mechanism of reheating remains unknown. We show that if the reheating is triggered by thermal dissipation…
During (re)heating of the universe after inflation, the relativistic decay products of the inflaton field $\phi$ must lose energy and additional particles must be produced to attain a thermalised state at a temperature $T_{\reh}$. We…
Cosmological reheating bridges the inflationary epoch and the hot big bang phase, yet its underlying dynamics remain poorly understood. In this work, we investigate a minimal scenario in which the inflaton evolves under a simple power-law…
We discuss production of heavy partciles during reheating. We find that the very energetic inflaton decay products can contribute to the production of massive stable particles, either through collisions with the thermal plasma, or through…
We study the two-phase scenario following inflation, where the initial step is preheating, accompanied by a step of perturbative reheating at which inflaton field decays transferring all of its energy to create relativistic particles, the…
If the inflaton decays into several components during reheating, and if the corresponding decay rates are functions of spacetime-dependent quantities, it is possible to generate entropy perturbations after a stage of single-field inflation.…
In order for the inflaton to decay into radiation at the end of inflation, it needs to couple to light matter fields. In this article we determine whether such couplings cause the inflaton to decay during inflation rather than after it. We…
We analyze in detail the perturbative decay of the inflaton oscillating about a generic form of its potential $V(\phi) = \phi^k$, taking into account the effects of non-instantaneous reheating. We show that evolution of the temperature as a…
Particle production caused by the oscillation after inflation is important since it explains reheating after inflation. On the particle theory side, we know that effective action may have additional higher dimensional terms (usually called…