The charged inflaton and its gauge fields: preheating and initial conditions for reheating

Journal Article · Tue Jun 14 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/06/032· OSTI ID:22572099

Lozanov, Kaloian D. ^[1]; Amin, Mustafa A. ^[1]

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1. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge,Madingly Road, Cambridge (United Kingdom)

We calculate particle production during inflation and in the early stages of reheating after inflation in models with a charged scalar field coupled to Abelian and non-Abelian gauge fields. A detailed analysis of the power spectra of primordial electric fields, magnetic fields and charge fluctuations at the end of inflation and preheating is provided. We carefully account for the Gauss constraints during inflation and preheating, and clarify the role of the longitudinal components of the electric field. We calculate the timescale for the back-reaction of the produced gauge fields on the inflaton condensate, marking the onset of non-linear evolution of the fields. We provide a prescription for initial conditions for lattice simulations necessary to capture the subsequent nonlinear dynamics. On the observational side, we find that the primordial magnetic fields generated are too small to explain the origin of magnetic fields on galactic scales and the charge fluctuations are well within observational bounds for the models considered in this paper.

• Sponsoring Organization: SCOAP3, CERN, Geneva (Switzerland)
• OSTI ID: 22572099
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Journal Issue: 06 Vol. 2016; ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COSMOLOGICAL INFLATION
COSMOLOGY
ELECTRIC FIELDS
GAUGE INVARIANCE
HEAT TREATMENTS
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
INFLATONS
LATTICE FIELD THEORY
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MATHEMATICAL EVOLUTION
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PERTURBATION THEORY
SCALAR FIELDS