Dissipative Effects on Reheating after Inflation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dissipative effects influence the reheating process after inflation, showing that these effects significantly alter the reheating temperature and the dynamics of particle production and thermalization.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of particle production, thermalization, and inflaton dissipation in a hot plasma, extending the conventional reheating scenario to include dissipative effects.

Findings

Reheating temperature is significantly affected by dissipation.

Dissipative effects modify particle production and thermalization processes.

The study offers a more comprehensive understanding of post-inflation dynamics.

Abstract

The inflaton must convert its energy into radiation after inflation, which, in a conventional scenario, is caused by the perturbative inflaton decay. This reheating process would be much more complicated in some cases: the decay products obtain masses from an oscillating inflaton and thermal environment, and hence the conventional reheating scenario can be modified. We study in detail processes of particle production from the inflaton, their subsequent thermalization and evolution of inflaton/plasma system by taking dissipation of the inflaton in a hot plasma into account. It is shown that the reheating temperature is significantly affected by these effects.