[SEMINARI] SEMINAR: Paul Anderson, Parametric Amplification and Reheating in Chaotic Inflation

[German Rodrigo Garcia]

Parametric Amplification and Reheating in Chaotic Inflation

Paul Anderson
Wake Forest University and Universidad de Valencia
Monday, 20 of November of 2006     12:00 PM
Theoretical Physics Seminars room
Abstract

After a period of inflation the density of the universe is negligible. The 
process by which it fills up again with particles and radiation is called 
reheating. In chaotic inflation reheating occurs through the coupling of 
quantum fields with the inflaton field (possibly including a coupling of 
the inflaton field with itself). The energy for the creation of the 
particles comes from the inflaton field. In many cases the particle 
production is extremely rapid due to the process of parametric 
amplification. Some interesting issues regarding parametric amplification 
will be discussed including the question of whether a quantum field theory 
is renormalizable when parametric amplification occurs, what effects the 
process has on the inflaton field, and whether all of the energy of the 
inflaton field is dissipated by this process.