Calculations of inflaton decays and reheating: With applications to no-scale inflation models

John Ellis, Marcos A.G. Garcia, Dimitri V. Nanopoulos, Keith A. Olive

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

81 Scopus citations

Abstract

We discuss inflaton decays and reheating in no-scale Starobinsky-like models of inflation, calculating the effective equation-of-state parameter, w, during the epoch of inflaton decay, the reheating temperature, Treh, and the number of inflationary e-folds, N, comparing analytical approximations with numerical calculations. We then illustrate these results with applications to models based on no-scale supergravity and motivated by generic string compactifications, including scenarios where the inflaton is identified as an untwisted-sector matter field with direct Yukawa couplings to MSSM fields, and where the inflaton decays via gravitational-strength interactions. Finally, we use our results to discuss the constraints on these models imposed by present measurements of the scalar spectral index ns and the tensor-to-scalar perturbation ratio r, converting them into constraints on N, the inflaton decay rate and other parameters of specific no-scale inflationary models.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number050
JournalJournal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Volume2015
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl.

Keywords

  • cosmological perturbation theory
  • inflation
  • particle physics - cosmology connection
  • supersymmetry and cosmology

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