Parametric Amplification and Reheating in Chaotic Inflation

por Paul Anderson (Wake Forest University and Universidad de Valencia)

lunes 20 nov. 2006 12:00 → 13:00 Europe/Madrid

Sala Seminarios (Dpto. de Física Teórica (UVEG))

After a period of inflation the density of the universe is negligible. The process by which it fills up again with particles and radiation is called reheating. In chaotic inflation reheating occurs through the coupling of quantum fields with the inflaton field (possibly including a coupling of the inflaton field with itself). The energy for the creation of the particles comes from the inflaton field. In many cases the particle production is extremely rapid due to the process of parametric amplification. Some interesting issues regarding parametric amplification will be discussed including the question of whether a quantum field theory is renormalizable when parametric amplification occurs, what effects the process has on the inflaton field, and whether all of the energy of the inflaton field is dissipated by this process.