Gravitational effects on inflaton decay

Yohei Ema, Ryusuke Jinno, Kyohei Mukaida, Kazunori Nakayama

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We point out that the inflaton inevitably couples to all non-conformally coupled matters gravitationally through an oscillation in the Hubble parameter or the cosmic scale factor. It leads to particle production during the inflaton oscillation regime, which is most efficient just after inflation. Moreover, the analysis is extended to the model with non-minimal inflaton couplings to gravity, in which the Hubble parameter oscillates more violently. We apply our results to the graviton production by the inflaton: gravitons are also produced just after inflation, but the non-minimal coupling does not induce inflaton decay into the graviton pair.

Original languageEnglish
Article number038
JournalJournal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Volume2015
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015 May 22
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • gravity
  • inflation
  • modified gravity
  • primordial gravitational waves (theory)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Gravitational effects on inflaton decay'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this