No Cover Image

Journal article 957 views

Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime

D Boyanovsky, R Holman, Prem Kumar Orcid Logo

Physical Review D, Volume: 56, Issue: 4, Pages: 1958 - 1972

Swansea University Author: Prem Kumar Orcid Logo

Full text not available from this repository: check for access using links below.

DOI (Published version): 10.1103/PhysRevD.56.1958

Abstract

We study the decay of scalar fields, in particular the inflaton, into lighter scalars in a De Sitter spacetime background. After providing a practical def- inition of the rate, we focus on the case of an inflaton interacting with a massless scalar field either minimally or conformally coupled to the...

Full description

Published in: Physical Review D
Published: 1997
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa16107
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
first_indexed 2013-09-26T11:46:02Z
last_indexed 2020-07-16T18:28:32Z
id cronfa16107
recordtype SURis
fullrecord <?xml version="1.0"?><rfc1807><datestamp>2020-07-16T14:44:40.9304516</datestamp><bib-version>v2</bib-version><id>16107</id><entry>2013-09-20</entry><title>Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime</title><swanseaauthors><author><sid>087fd097167d724ce1b13cb285741ef5</sid><ORCID>0000-0003-0867-4213</ORCID><firstname>Prem</firstname><surname>Kumar</surname><name>Prem Kumar</name><active>true</active><ethesisStudent>false</ethesisStudent></author></swanseaauthors><date>2013-09-20</date><deptcode>SPH</deptcode><abstract>We study the decay of scalar fields, in particular the inflaton, into lighter scalars in a De Sitter spacetime background. After providing a practical def- inition of the rate, we focus on the case of an inflaton interacting with a massless scalar field either minimally or conformally coupled to the curvature. The evolution equation for the expectation value of the inflaton is obtained to one loop order in perturbation theory and the decay rate is recognized from the solution. We find the remarkable result that this decay rate displays an equilibrium Bose-enhancement factor with an effective temperature given by the Hawking temperature H/2&#x3C0;, where H is the Hubble constant. This con- tribution is interpreted as the &#x201C;stimulated emission&#x201D; of bosons in a thermal bath at the Hawking temperature. In the context of new inflation scenarios, we show that inflaton decay into conformally coupled massless fields slows down the rolling of the expectation value. Decay into Goldstone bosons is also studied. Contact with stochastic inflation is established by deriving the Langevin equation for the coarse-grained expectation value of the inflaton field to one-loop order in this model. We find that the noise is gaussian and cor- related (colored) and its correlations are related to the dissipative (&#x201C;decay&#x201D;) kernel via a generalized fluctuation-dissipation relation.</abstract><type>Journal Article</type><journal>Physical Review D</journal><volume>56</volume><journalNumber>4</journalNumber><paginationStart>1958</paginationStart><paginationEnd>1972</paginationEnd><publisher/><keywords/><publishedDay>31</publishedDay><publishedMonth>12</publishedMonth><publishedYear>1997</publishedYear><publishedDate>1997-12-31</publishedDate><doi>10.1103/PhysRevD.56.1958</doi><url/><notes/><college>COLLEGE NANME</college><department>Physics</department><CollegeCode>COLLEGE CODE</CollegeCode><DepartmentCode>SPH</DepartmentCode><institution>Swansea University</institution><apcterm/><lastEdited>2020-07-16T14:44:40.9304516</lastEdited><Created>2013-09-20T10:40:21.7002237</Created><path><level id="1">Faculty of Science and Engineering</level><level id="2">School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Physics</level></path><authors><author><firstname>D</firstname><surname>Boyanovsky</surname><order>1</order></author><author><firstname>R</firstname><surname>Holman</surname><order>2</order></author><author><firstname>Prem</firstname><surname>Kumar</surname><orcid>0000-0003-0867-4213</orcid><order>3</order></author></authors><documents/><OutputDurs/></rfc1807>
spelling 2020-07-16T14:44:40.9304516 v2 16107 2013-09-20 Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime 087fd097167d724ce1b13cb285741ef5 0000-0003-0867-4213 Prem Kumar Prem Kumar true false 2013-09-20 SPH We study the decay of scalar fields, in particular the inflaton, into lighter scalars in a De Sitter spacetime background. After providing a practical def- inition of the rate, we focus on the case of an inflaton interacting with a massless scalar field either minimally or conformally coupled to the curvature. The evolution equation for the expectation value of the inflaton is obtained to one loop order in perturbation theory and the decay rate is recognized from the solution. We find the remarkable result that this decay rate displays an equilibrium Bose-enhancement factor with an effective temperature given by the Hawking temperature H/2π, where H is the Hubble constant. This con- tribution is interpreted as the “stimulated emission” of bosons in a thermal bath at the Hawking temperature. In the context of new inflation scenarios, we show that inflaton decay into conformally coupled massless fields slows down the rolling of the expectation value. Decay into Goldstone bosons is also studied. Contact with stochastic inflation is established by deriving the Langevin equation for the coarse-grained expectation value of the inflaton field to one-loop order in this model. We find that the noise is gaussian and cor- related (colored) and its correlations are related to the dissipative (“decay”) kernel via a generalized fluctuation-dissipation relation. Journal Article Physical Review D 56 4 1958 1972 31 12 1997 1997-12-31 10.1103/PhysRevD.56.1958 COLLEGE NANME Physics COLLEGE CODE SPH Swansea University 2020-07-16T14:44:40.9304516 2013-09-20T10:40:21.7002237 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Physics D Boyanovsky 1 R Holman 2 Prem Kumar 0000-0003-0867-4213 3
title Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime
spellingShingle Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime
Prem Kumar
title_short Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime
title_full Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime
title_fullStr Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime
title_full_unstemmed Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime
title_sort Inflaton decay in de Sitter spacetime
author_id_str_mv 087fd097167d724ce1b13cb285741ef5
author_id_fullname_str_mv 087fd097167d724ce1b13cb285741ef5_***_Prem Kumar
author Prem Kumar
author2 D Boyanovsky
R Holman
Prem Kumar
format Journal article
container_title Physical Review D
container_volume 56
container_issue 4
container_start_page 1958
publishDate 1997
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.1103/PhysRevD.56.1958
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Physics{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Physics
document_store_str 0
active_str 0
description We study the decay of scalar fields, in particular the inflaton, into lighter scalars in a De Sitter spacetime background. After providing a practical def- inition of the rate, we focus on the case of an inflaton interacting with a massless scalar field either minimally or conformally coupled to the curvature. The evolution equation for the expectation value of the inflaton is obtained to one loop order in perturbation theory and the decay rate is recognized from the solution. We find the remarkable result that this decay rate displays an equilibrium Bose-enhancement factor with an effective temperature given by the Hawking temperature H/2π, where H is the Hubble constant. This con- tribution is interpreted as the “stimulated emission” of bosons in a thermal bath at the Hawking temperature. In the context of new inflation scenarios, we show that inflaton decay into conformally coupled massless fields slows down the rolling of the expectation value. Decay into Goldstone bosons is also studied. Contact with stochastic inflation is established by deriving the Langevin equation for the coarse-grained expectation value of the inflaton field to one-loop order in this model. We find that the noise is gaussian and cor- related (colored) and its correlations are related to the dissipative (“decay”) kernel via a generalized fluctuation-dissipation relation.
published_date 1997-12-31T03:18:24Z
_version_ 1763750449293295616
score 11.016235