Nonthermal Phase Transitions after Inflation

Lev Kofman; Andrei Linde; Alexei A. Starobinsky

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.1011

Nonthermal Phase Transitions after Inflation

Lev Kofman, Andrei Linde, and Alexei A. Starobinsky

Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1011 – Published 12 February 1996

Abstract

At the first stage of reheating after inflation, parametric resonance may rapidly transfer most of the energy of an inflaton field $φ$ to the energy of other bosons. We show that quantum fluctuations of scalar and vector fields produced at this stage are much greater than they would be in a state of thermal equilibrium. This leads to cosmological phase transitions of a new type, which may result in a copious production of topological defects and in a secondary stage of inflation after reheating.

Received 18 October 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.1011

Authors & Affiliations

Lev Kofman¹, Andrei Linde², and Alexei A. Starobinsky³

¹Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
²Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
³Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kosygina St. 2, Moscow 117334, Russia