Tachyonic Preheating

TL;DR

Tachyonic preheating is a rapid energy transfer process after inflation caused by scalar field instability, especially prevalent in hybrid inflation models, leading to efficient conversion of energy into classical waves.

Contribution

This paper reviews the theory of tachyonic preheating, highlighting its rapid energy transfer mechanism and its significance in hybrid inflation scenarios.

Findings

Tachyonic instability causes rapid energy transfer within a single oscillation.

Efficient tachyonic preheating is common in hybrid inflation models.

Tachyonic preheating involves conversion of energy into classical waves.

Abstract

I review the theory of preheating after inflation, focusing on the recently found tachyonic preheating in the theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking. This occurs due to the tachyonic instability of the scalar field near the top of its effective potential. Contrary to the common expectation, tachyonic instability converts most of the energy into that of colliding classical waves very rapidly, within a single oscillation. Efficient tachyonic preheating is typical for the hybrid inflationary scenario, including SUSY motivated and brane inflation models.