Reheating and Preheating after Inflation

Abstract

It is assumed that during inflation, all energy was contained in a slow-rolling inflaton field $ϕ$. The particles constituting the Universe are created due to interactions with the field $ϕ$ coherently oscillating after inflation. The leading channel of the particle production would be the non-perturbative regime of parametric resonance, preheating. Some of the recent developments in the theory of preheating are briefly reviewed. As a prototype we use the model ${λ\over 4}ϕ^4 + {m^2 \over 2}ϕ^2+ {g^2\over 2}ϕ^2χ^2$ in an expanding universe. In different domains of parameters the character of preheating $(ϕ\to χ)$ or $(ϕ\to δϕ)$ is different, ranging from regular Lamé to stochastic parametric resonances. Fortunately, in many important cases simple analytic resonant solutions are found. Eventually, a picture which unifies the different regimes emerges.

8 pages, in: 3rd RESCEU Symp. Particle Cosmology, Tokyo 1997