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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Inflation After Preheating, Gary Felder, Lev Kofman, Andrei Linde, Igor Tkachev
Inflation After Preheating, Gary Felder, Lev Kofman, Andrei Linde, Igor Tkachev
Physics: Faculty Publications
Preheating after inflation may lead to non-thermal phase transitions with symmetry restoration. These phase transitions may occur even if the total energy density of fluctuations produced during reheating is relatively small as compared with the vacuum energy in the state with restored symmetry. As a result, in some inflationary models one encounters a secondary, non-thermal stage of inflation due to symmetry restoration after preheating. We review the theory of non-thermal phase transitions and make a prediction about the expansion factor during the secondary inflationary stage. We then present the results of lattice simulations which verify these predictions, and discuss possible …
Gravitational Particle Production And The Moduli Problem, Gary Felder, Lev Kofman, Andrei Linde
Gravitational Particle Production And The Moduli Problem, Gary Felder, Lev Kofman, Andrei Linde
Physics: Faculty Publications
A theory of gravitational production of light scalar particles during and after inflation is investigated. We show that in the most interesting cases where long-wavelength fluctuations of light scalar fields can be generated during inflation, these fluctuations rather than quantum fluctuations produced after inflation give the dominant contribution to particle production. In such cases a simple analytical theory of particle production can be developed. Application of our results to the theory of quantum creation of moduli fields demonstrates that if the moduli mass is smaller than the Hubble constant then these fields are copiously produced during inflation. This gives rise …