The evolution and decay of supersymmetric flat directions in the early universe and their role in thermalizing the universe

TL;DR

This paper investigates how supersymmetric flat direction scalar condensates evolve and decay after inflation, showing they decay rapidly through nonperturbative processes, thus minimally impacting early universe thermalization.

Contribution

It provides both analytic and numerical analysis of supersymmetric flat direction condensates' evolution and decay in the early universe, highlighting their rapid decay before affecting thermalization.

Findings

Condensates decay through rapid, nonperturbative processes.

Decay occurs long before they influence thermalization.

Numerical solutions support analytic predictions.

Abstract

I study the post-inflation oscillation and decay of light coherent scalar field condensates that may develop during an inflationary phase of the universe. In particular, the light scalars studied are a composition of the scalar particles of a supersymmetric theory which correspond to the flat directions of the theory's scalar potential. Some toy models that possess supersymmetric flat directions are presented and numerical solutions for the evolution of the scalar fields are obtained. Both analytic and numeric results suggest that such condensates, if they existed in the early universe, can decay through a rapid and nonperturbative process long before these condensates could significantly affect the thermalization of the universe.