2014/12/25 by Takashi Hiramatsu, Yuhei Miyamoto, Jun’ichi Yokoyama +1
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Classical mechanics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Gravitation #Inflation (cosmology) #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Theoretical physics #Thermal #Thermal fluctuations #Thermodynamics #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2015/03/024
14 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2014/12/25 · openalex publication_date 2015/03/12 · arxiv updated 2015/06/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The mechanism of thermal inflation, a relatively short period of accelerated expansion after primordial inflation, is a desirable ingredient for a certain class of particle physics models if they are not to be in contention with the cosmology of the early Universe. Though thermal inflation is most simply described in terms of a thermal effective potential, a thermal environment also gives rise to thermal fluctuations that must be taken into account. We numerically study the effects of these thermal fluctuations using lattice simulations. We conclude that though they do not ruin the thermal inflation scenario, the phase transition at the end of thermal inflation proceeds through phase mixing and is therefore not accompanied by the formations of bubbles nor appreciable amplitude of gravitational waves.