Simulating Preheating After Inflation

Hal Finkel
Seminar

Inflation has become a well-accepted scheme for explaining the three large mysteries of big-bang cosmology: the observed homogeneity of the universe, its extreme flatness, and the nearly-scale-free power-spectrum of initial density perturbations. The study of models in which the inflation field(s) experience parametric resonance, a popular method for causing particle production and, thus, the resumption of the normal big-bang time line will be discussed. Several distinguishing observables have been investigated using a new C++ pseudo-spectral code named PSpectRE: first, the spectrum of gravitational radiation produced by each model has been calculated. In addition, many models tend to produce oscillons, a kind of long-lived but non-symmetry-protected soliton, and these can profoundly affect the evolution history of the universe prior to their
eventual decay. PSpectRE performs competitively and exhibits excellent energy conservation.

Click on this link to add this event to your calendar.