Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-9-2015

Publication Title

Physics Letters, B

Department

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

We propose a new preheating mechanism through the coupling of the gravitational field to both the inflaton and matter fields, without direct inflaton–matter couplings. The inflaton transfers power to the matter fields through interactions with gravitational waves, which are exponentially enhanced due to an inflation–graviton coupling. One such coupling is the product of the inflaton to the Pontryagin density, as in dynamical Chern–Simons gravity. The energy scales involved are constrained by requiring that preheating happens fast during matter domination.

DOI

10.1016/j.physletb.2015.02.018

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