2025/07/13 by Arghyajit Datta, Shaaban Khalil, Datta, Arghyajit +4 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2507.09728
openalex publication_date 2025/07/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate a non-instantaneous reheating period in the early Universe, where the inflaton field decays exclusively to right-handed neutrinos (RHNs). The subsequent decay of these RHNs into Standard Model particles not only drives the transition to a radiation-dominated era but also generates the baryon asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis. In this typical reheating scenario, gravitational waves (GWs) can be produced during inflaton decay, both through bremsstrahlung and inflaton scattering processes. While GW production via bremsstrahlung dominates near the end of the reheating phase, inflaton scattering leads to a non-negligible GW contribution near the maximum temperature of the Universe. The combined GW spectrum from both decay and scattering processes lies within the sensitivity range of proposed resonant cavity experiments. This framework thus offers a compelling and unified approach to addressing neutrino mass generation, the baryon asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis, and probing the dynamics of a non-instantaneous reheating era.