Nonperturbative Dynamics Of Reheating After Inflation: A Review

2014/10/31 by Mustafa A. Amin, Mark P. Hertzberg, David Kaiser +2 · 60 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph.CO #hep-ph #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/s0218271815300037

published as Int. J. Mod. Phys. D 24 (2015): 1530003 · v1: 44 pages, 9 figures. Invited review for the International Journal of Modern Physics D. For v2: Minor changes in text; 19 references added. For v3: Minor changes in text; 16 references added; similar to version to be published by IJMPD

openalex publication_date 2014/12/05 · arxiv created 2014/12/06 · arxiv updated 2015/01/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Our understanding of the state of the universe between the end of inflation and big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is incomplete. The dynamics at the end of inflation are rich and a potential source of observational signatures. Reheating, the energy transfer between the inflaton and Standard Model fields (possibly through intermediaries) and their subsequent thermalization, can provide clues to how inflation fits in with known high-energy physics. We provide an overview of our current understanding of the nonperturbative, nonlinear dynamics at the end of inflation, some salient features of realistic particle physics models of reheating, and how the universe reaches a thermal state before BBN. In addition, we review the analytical and numerical tools available in the literature to study preheating and reheating and discuss potential observational signatures from this fascinating era.

Citations

• TASI Lectures on Inflation
• Inflaton fragmentation: Emergence of pseudo-stable inflaton lumps (oscillons) after inflation
• Quantum Fields in Curved Space
• Non-Gaussianity from Inflation: Theory and Observations

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• Weakly model-independent determination of total expansion during inflation
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• CMB-S4 Science Case, Reference Design, and Project Plan
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• Primordial Black Hole Formation and Spin in Matter Domination Revisited
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• Viability of generalized α-inflation from Planck, ACT, and DESI Data
• Decay and lifetime of oscillons coupled to an external scalar field: Insights from instability band analysis
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• Dark Energy and Dark Matter in a Model of an Axion Coupled to a Non-Abelian Gauge Field
• The α-Attractor E-Model in Warm Inflation: Observational Viability from Planck 2018
• Primordial Gravitational Waves from Phase Transitions during Reheating
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• Precision Unitarity Calculations in Inflationary Models
• Full-Spectrum Analysis of Gravitational Wave Production from Inflation to Reheating
• Parametric Resonance and Backreaction Effects in Magnetogenesis from Ultralight Dark Matter
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• Refined Predictions for Starobinsky Inflation and Post-inflationary Constraints in Light of ACT
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• Cosmological dynamics of Higgs potential fine tuning
• Cosmological backgrounds of gravitational waves
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• Probing the BSM physics with CMB precision cosmology: an application to supersymmetry
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• Challenges and opportunities of gravitational-wave searches at MHz to GHz frequencies
• Perturbative analysis of the reheating dynamics of α-attractors
• Light Scalar Fields Foster Production of Primordial Black Holes
• Purely gravitational dark matter production in warm inflation
• A Rapidly Expanding Bose-Einstein Condensate: An Expanding Universe in the Lab
• Tachyonic and parametric resonances for massive particle production in an intense plane wave background
• The Effect of Nonlinear Gravity on the Cosmological Background During Preheating
• Warm modified Chaplygin gas shaft inflation

Related

• New Aspects of Reheating
• Preheating and Reheating after Standard Inflation
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