ACP Seminar (Astronomy - Cosmology - Particle Physics)

Speaker: Andrei Frolov (Simon Fraser)
Title: Non-linear dynamics and primordial curvature perturbations from preheating
Date (JST): Tue, Jul 06, 2010, 15:30 - 16:30
Place: Seminar Room A
Abstract: I will talk about non-linear dynamics of preheating, a stage of dynamical instability at the end of inflation during which homogeneous inflaton explosively decays and deposits its energy into excitation of other matter fields. I will go over basic theory of preheating and numerical methods developed to tackle the problem, and present simulation results highlighting non-equilibrium transitions, topological defect formation, late-time universality, turbulent scaling and approach to thermalization. I will explain how preheating can generate large-scale primordial (non-Gaussian) curvature fluctuations manifest in cosmic microwave background anisotropy and large scale structure, and discuss potentially observable signatures of preheating.
Remarks: Click speaker's name to view presentation-slide.