101. Calculations of Inflaton Decays and Reheating: with Applications to No-Scale Inflation Models
- Author
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Ellis, John, Garcia, Marcos A. G., Nanopoulos, Dimitri V., and Olive, Keith A.
- Subjects
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology ,Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics ,General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology ,High Energy Physics - Theory - 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, $T_{\rm reh}$, 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 $n_s$ 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., Comment: 33 pages, 14 figures
- Published
- 2015
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