%0 Journal Article
%T Energy distribution and equation of state of the early Universe: Matching the end of inflation and the onset of radiation domination
%A Antusch, S.
%A Figueroa, D. G.
%A Marschall, K.
%A Torrenti, F.
%J Physics Letters B
%D 2020
%V 811
%I Elsevier
%@ 0370-2693
%G English
%F Antusch_etal2020
%O WOS:000612225400040
%O exported from refbase (https://references.ific.uv.es/refbase/show.php?record=4699), last updated on Fri, 19 Feb 2021 08:25:03 +0000
%X We study the energy distribution and equation of state of the universe between the end of inflation and the onset of radiation domination (RD), considering observationally consistent single-field inflationary scenarios, with a potential 'flattening' at large field values, and a monomial shape V(phi) proportional to vertical bar phi vertical bar(p) around the origin. As a proxy for (p)reheating, we include a quadratic interaction g(2)phi X-2(2) between the inflaton phi and a light scalar 'daughter' field X, with g(2) > 0. We capture the non-perturbative and non-linear nature of the system dynamics with lattice simulations, obtaining that: i) the final energy transferred to X depends only on p, not on g(2); ii) the final transfer of energy is always negligible for 2 <= p < 4, and of order similar to 50% for p >= 4; iii) the system goes at late times to matter-domination for p = 2, and always to RD for p > 2. In the latter case we calculate the number of e-folds until RD, significantly reducing the uncertainty in the inflationary observables Tl-s and r.
%R 10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135888
%U https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.07563
%U https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135888
%P 135888-7pp