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Waves and Bubbles The Detailed Structure of Preheating. Gary Felder. Outline. Introduction: Reheating and Preheating The Detailed Structure of Preheating A Taxonomy of Preheating Conclusions. Reheating and Preheating.
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Waves and BubblesThe Detailed Structure of Preheating Gary Felder
Outline • Introduction: Reheating and Preheating • The Detailed Structure of Preheating • A Taxonomy of Preheating • Conclusions
Reheating and Preheating • Originally reheating was considered perturbatively and the products of this decay were assumed to emerge in thermal equilibrium at a calculable reheating temperature, TRH. • More recently it was found that in a wide variety of models reheating begins with an explosive stage of non-perturbative particle production, which produces a nonthermal spectrum.
Preheating: Parametric Resonance • Consider reheating in which the oscillating inflaton is coupled to a field , e.g. • The modes of the field will undergo oscillations according to the equation: • Since oscillates essentially sinusoidally, the modes of undergo parametric resonance.
Parametric Resonance, cont. • Each time the inflaton crosses zero the number density of particles will increase for all modes within the resonance band. *Figure taken from Kofman, Linde, and Starobinsky, hep-ph/9704452.
Preheating: Tachyonic Preheating • In many models of inflation such as new inflation and hybrid inflation the scalar fields at the end of inflation fall down a slope with negative curvature.
Tachyonic Preheating, cont. • In many models of inflation such as new inflation and hybrid inflation the scalar fields at the end of inflation fall down a slope with negative curvature. • As a result, all modes with wave number k smaller than the curvature will be exponentially amplified.
The Importance of Preheating • Thermal effects such as gravitino production and phase transitions may occur long before final thermalization takes place. • Nonthermal effects such as baryogenesis can also take place shortly after preheating. • All of these effects (and others) can be highly sensitive to the details of preheating.
The Detailed Structure of Preheating • Semi-thermalization: The spectrum produced by preheating • Bubbles and waves: The spatial field distribution produced by preheating • What’s the matter with matter?: The equation of state after preheating
The Equation of State • Consider the model • When the energy is dominated by the homogeneous inflaton field (after inflation) the equation of state is matter domination. • When the energy is dominated by the conformal, quartic term the equation of state is radiation domination.
A Taxonomy of Preheating • Large field models: Inflaton decay is dominated by parametric resonance. • Hybrid models: Inflaton decay is dominated by tachyonic preheating. • Small field models (new inflation) Both effects are important
Conclusions • Generically, reheating begins with a rapid stage of preheating that produces high occupation numbers and a nearly thermal spectrum in infrared modes. • This semi-thermalized state with enormously high temperatures is the stage for a lot of early-universe physics. The “reheating temperature” is not the most important aspect of reheating.
Chaotic Inflation V • While the inflaton is high on its potential the universe inflates. When it gets low enough inflation ends. • As it oscillates around the minimum the homogeneous inflaton decays into fluctuations and other fields.
Key Points of Preheating • Modes of the fields coupled to the inflaton are exponentially amplified. • These modes are not produced in a thermal distribution. • Rather, the energy is concentrated in low-momentum modes. • However, within those modes the spectrum is nearly thermal.
Chaotic Inflation • H acts as a damping term for , so as long as H is large is nearly constant. • As long as is nearly constant H will be nearly constant. • Since H= /a , a constant H means a increases exponentially • When falls below a certain value H is no longer large enough to damp its motion, and inflation ends.
Studying Reheating: Two Difficulties • Unknown Model • High energy physics not tested in labs • Use early universe studies to test models • Complicated Equations • Can’t be solved analytically • Standard approximations fail • Must use numerical calculations
Energy Potential Energy Scalar Field Energy Kinetic Energy Time Time Energy Conservation
Scale Factor and Energy Density Scale Factor Energy Density Time