Related papers: Super-horizon perturbations and preheating
We study the effects of perturbative reheating on the evolution of the curvature perturbation \zeta, in two-field inflation models. We use numerical methods to explore the sensitivity of f_NL, n_s and r to the reheating process, and present…
I examine the standard formalism of calculating curvature perturbations in inflation at horizon crossing, and derive a general relation which must be satisfied for the horizon crossing formalism to be valid. This relation is satisfied for…
We investigate preheating in a higher-dimensional generalized Kaluza-Klein theory with a quadratic inflaton potential $V(\phi)=\frac12 m^2\phi^2$ including metric perturbations explicitly. The system we consider is the multi-field model…
In some versions of the theory of inflation, it is assumed that before inflation began the universe was in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) stage, with the energy density dominated by massless particles. The origin of the nearly…
Modulated (p)reheating is thought to be an alternative mechanism for producing super-horizon curvature perturbations in CMB. But large non-gaussianity and iso-curvature perturbations produced by this mechanism rule out its acceptability as…
We present a gauge-invariant formalism to study the evolution of the curvature and entropy perturbations in the case in which spatial and time variations of the inflaton decay rate into ordinary matter are present. During the reheating…
We propose a new mechanism to generate density perturbations in inflationary models. Spatial fluctuations in the decay rate of the inflaton field to ordinary matter lead to fluctuations in the reheating temperature. We argue that in most…
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…
A new mechanism for generating the curvature perturbation at the end of inflaton has been investigated. The dominant contribution to the primordial curvature perturbation may be generated during the period of instant preheating. The…
We study the metric perturbations produced during inflation in models with two scalar fields evolving simultaneously. In particular, we emphasize how the large-scale curvature perturbation $\zeta$ on fixed energy density hypersurfaces may…
In hybrid inflationary models, inflation ends by a sudden instability associated with a steep ridge in the potential. Here we argue that this feature can generate a large contribution to the curvature perturbation on observable scales. This…
Several conserved and/or gauge invariant quantities described as the second-order curvature perturbation have been given in the literature. We revisit various scenarios for the generation of second-order non-gaussianity in the primordial…
How much does the curvature perturbation change after it leaves the horizon, and when should one evaluate the power spectrum? To answer these questions we study single field inflation models numerically, and compare the evolution of…
We demonstrate that cosmological perturbations can undergo amplification by parametric resonance during the preheating period following inflation, even on scales larger than the Hubble radius, without violating causality. A unified…
Inflation is an early period of accelerated cosmic expansion, thought to be sourced by high energy physics. A key task today is to use the influx of increasingly precise observational data to constrain the plethora of inflationary models…
The mechanism of thermal inflation, a relatively short period of accelerated expansion after primordial inflation, is a desirable ingredient for a certain class of particle physics models if they are not to be in contention with the…
We discuss metric perturbations produced during a period of inflation in the early universe where two scalar fields evolve. The final scalar perturbation spectrum can be calculated in terms of the perturbed expansion along neighbouring…
We derive the first systematic observational constraints on reheating in models of inflation where an additional light scalar field contributes to primordial density perturbations and affects the expansion history during reheating. This…
During the preheating process at the end of inflation the amplification of field fluctuations can lead to the amplification of curvature perturbations. If the curvature perturbations on small scales are sufficiently large, primordial black…
Conservation of super-horizon tensor fluctuations is crucial for connecting inflation to observations. Starting from first principles, recent works have found violations of this conservation if free-streaming radiation is produced during…