Non-Thermal Phase Transitions after Inflation
High Energy Physics - Theory
2009-09-29 v3 Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Quantum Physics
Abstract
At the first stage of reheating after inflation, parametric resonance may rapidly transfer most of the energy of an inflaton field to the energy of other bosons. We show that quantum fluctuations of scalar and vector fields produced at this stage are much greater than they would be in a state of thermal equilibrium. This leads to cosmological phase transitions of a new type, which may result in a copious production of topological defects and in a secondary stage of inflation after reheating.
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/9510119,
title = {Non-Thermal Phase Transitions after Inflation},
author = {Lev Kofman and Andrei Linde and Alexei A. Starobinsky},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9510119},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, an improved version to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett