Tachyonic Preheating and Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking

TL;DR

This paper explores tachyonic preheating at the end of inflation, showing through lattice simulations that it rapidly induces spontaneous symmetry breaking via spinodal instability, completing within a single oscillation.

Contribution

It provides a detailed non-perturbative analysis of tachyonic preheating using 3D lattice simulations, highlighting its efficiency and rapid symmetry breaking process.

Findings

Tachyonic preheating completes within a single oscillation.

Symmetry breaking occurs rapidly due to spinodal instability.

Lattice simulations effectively model the non-linear dynamics.

Abstract

We discuss the recent scenario of tachyonic preheating at the end of inflation as a consequence of a tachyonic mass term in the scalar field responsible for spontaneous symmetry breaking. We use 3D lattice simulations to expore this very non-perturbative and non-linear phenomenon, which occurs due to the spinodal instability of the scalar field. Tachyonic preheating is so efficient that symmetry breaking typically completes within a single oscillation of the field distribution as it rolls towards the minimum of its effective potential.