Floquet analysis of self-resonance in single-field models of inflation

TL;DR

This paper reviews 51 single-field inflation models, analyzing their potential for self-resonance-driven reheating using Floquet theory, and identifies one model with efficient radiation-like behavior.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive Floquet analysis of self-resonance in a large set of inflation models, highlighting the unique case of KKLT inflation.

Findings

Five models show strong instability due to self-resonance.

Only KKLT inflation efficiently approaches a radiation-like equation of state.

Most models do not exhibit significant self-resonance effects.

Abstract

We review 51 models of single-field inflation, paying special attention to the possibility that self-resonance of the unstable inflaton perturbations leads to reheating. We compute Floquet exponents for the models that are consistent with current cosmological data. We find five models that exhibit a strong instability, but only in one of them -- KKLT inflation -- the equation of state efficiently approaches that of radiation.