A Theory of Self-Resonance After Inflation, Part 2: Quantum Mechanics and Particle-Antiparticle Asymmetry

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum mechanical framework to analyze self-resonance phenomena after inflation, focusing on particle scattering, Bose-Einstein statistics, and symmetry breaking, with implications for baryogenesis and particle-antiparticle asymmetry.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum many-particle approach to understanding resonance structures post-inflation, extending previous classical analyses and linking to baryogenesis mechanisms.

Findings

Resonance structure determined by quantum scattering and statistics.

Inflaton fragmentation into particle-antiparticle regions during isocurvature instability.

Weak symmetry breaking affects particle-antiparticle asymmetry, relevant for baryogenesis.

Abstract

We further develop a theory of self-resonance after inflation in a large class of models involving multiple scalar fields. We concentrate on inflaton potentials that carry an internal symmetry, but also analyze weak breaking of this symmetry. This is the second part of a two part series of papers. Here in Part 2 we develop an understanding of the resonance structure from the underlying many particle quantum mechanics. We begin by a small amplitude analysis, which obtains the central resonant wave numbers, and relate it to perturbative processes. We show that the dominant resonance structure is determined by (i) the nonrelativistic scattering of many quantum particles and (ii) the application of Bose-Einstein statistics to the adiabatic and isocurvature modes, as introduced in Part 1 [1]. Other resonance structure is understood in terms of annihilations and decays. We setup Bunch-Davies vacuum initial conditions during inflation and track the evolution of modes including Hubble expansion. In the case of a complex inflaton carrying an internal U(1) symmetry, we show that when the isocurvature instability is active, the inflaton fragments into separate regions of \phi-particles and anti-\phi-particles. We then introduce a weak breaking of the U(1) symmetry; this can lead to baryogenesis, as shown by some of us recently [2,3]. Then using our results, we compute corrections to the particle-antiparticle asymmetry from this preheating era.