Related papers: When Does the Inflaton Decay?
We study some of the roles for unparticles in an inflationary universe. Unparticles by themselves are not appropriate for generating the primordial perturbations since their power spectrum does not match what has been inferred from…
We investigate the inflaton decay and reheating period after the end of inflation in the non-minimal derivative coupling (NDC) model with chaotic potential. In general, this model is known to provide an enhanced slow-roll inflation caused…
Homogeneous oscillations of the inflaton after inflation can be unstable to small spatial perturbations even without coupling to other fields. We show that for inflaton potentials $\propto |\phi|^{2n}$ near $|\phi|=0$ and flatter beyond…
We investigate chaotic inflation models with two scalar fields, such that one field (the inflaton) rolls while the other is trapped in a false vacuum state. The false vacuum becomes unstable when the inflaton field falls below some critical…
The observed power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is consistent with inflationary cosmology, which predicts a nearly scale-invariant power spectrum of quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field as they exit the Hubble…
We consider D-term inflation for small couplings of the inflaton to matter fields. Standard hybrid inflation then ends at a critical value of the inflaton field that exceeds the Planck mass. During the subsequent waterfall transition the…
We show that in scalar field inflationary models, the loop corrections in reheating corresponding to the decay of the inflaton can cause nontrivial superhorizon evolution of the curvature perturbation. The effect turns out to be prominent…
We study the problem of scalar particle production after inflation by a rapidly oscillating inflaton field. We use the framework of the chaotic inflation scenario with quartic and quadratic inflaton potentials. Particular attention is paid…
While stellar expansion after core-hydrogen exhaustion related to thermal imbalance has been documented for decades, the physical phenomenon of stellar inflation that occurs close to the Eddington limit has only come to the fore in recent…
We study the phenomenology of a realistic version of the chaotic inflationary model, which can be fully and directly explored in particle physics experiments. The inflaton mixes with the Standard Model Higgs boson via the scalar potential,…
The dependence of cosmological and inflationary parameters on time during the last 60 e-folds in inflation is investigated using a slow-roll inflation model. The time dependence of the inflaton field is calculated for the case of chaotic…
Inflation generally assumes a field with nonzero potential that leads to inflationary expansion happening at arbitrarily early times. We demonstrate potentially observable consequences of inflation with a finite initial time in a model in…
A scenario of the inflaton evolution from cosmic inflation and matter creation to dark matter/dark energy today is presented. To start with, a model of the inflationary phase of the inflaton is introduced. The inflaton rolls down a hilltop…
In this work we explore the effects that a possible primordial magnetic field can have on the inflaton effective potential, taking as the underlying model a warm inflation scenario, based on global supersymmetry with a new-inflation-type…
In the first stages of inflationary reheating, the temperature of the radiation produced by inflaton decays is typically higher than the commonly defined reheating temperature $T_{RH} \sim (\Gamma_\phi M_P)^{1/2}$ where $\Gamma_\phi$ is the…
The primordial spectrum of fluctuations may present a large peak as a result of enhancing features during inflation. This may include, but is not limited to, bumps in the inflaton's potential, phases of ultra-slow-roll or turns in…
The early Universe may have passed through an extended period of matter-dominated expansion following inflation and prior to the onset of radiation domination. Sub-horizon density perturbations grow gravitationally during such an epoch,…
Reheating is a transition era after the end of inflation, during which the inflaton is converted into the particles that populate the Universe at later times. No direct cosmological observables are normally traceable to this period of…
We show that multi-field inflationary models with negligible turning in field space during inflation can lead to an effective sourcing of adiabatic from entropic perturbations {\it after} the end of inflation. We illustrate this general…
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…