1,554 research outputs found
Dynamics of Symmetry Breaking and Tachyonic Preheating
We reconsider the old problem of the dynamics of spontaneous symmetry
breaking using 3d lattice simulations, and develop a theory of tachyonic
preheating, which occurs due to the spinodal instability of the scalar field.
Tachyonic preheating is so efficient that symmetry breaking typically completes
within a single oscillation of the field distribution as it rolls towards the
minimum of its effective potential. As an application of this theory we
consider preheating in the hybrid inflation scenario, including SUSY-motivated
F-term and D-term inflationary models. We show that preheating in hybrid
inflation is typically tachyonic and the stage of oscillations of a homogeneous
component of the scalar fields driving inflation ends after a single
oscillation. Our results may also be relevant for the theory of the formation
of disoriented chiral condensates in heavy ion collisions.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Higher quality figures and computer generated
movies in gif format illustrating our results can be found at
http://physics.stanford.edu/gfelder/hybri
Nonlinear curvature perturbations in an exactly soluble model of multi-component slow-roll inflation
Using the nonlinear formalism, we consider a simple exactly
soluble model of multi-component slow-roll inflation in which the nonlinear
curvature perturbation can be evaluated analytically.Comment: 4 pages, no figure, typos corrected, references added, final version
to be published in CQ
Unusual magnetic properties of the low-dimensional quantum magnet Na2V3O7
We report the results of low-temperature measurements of the specific heat
Cp(T), ac susceptibility chi(T) and 23Na nuclear magnetic resonance NMR of
Na2V3O7. At liquid He temperatures Cp(T)/T exhibits broad field-dependent
maxima, which shift to higher temperatures upon increasing the applied magnetic
field H. Below 1.5 K the ac magnetic susceptibility chi(T) follows a
Curie-Weiss law and exhibits a cusp at 0.086 mK which indicates a phase
transition at very low temperatures. These results support the previous
conjecture that Na2V3O7 is close to a quantum critical point (QCP) at mu_{0}H =
0 T. The entire data set, including results of measurements of the NMR
spin-lattice relaxation 1/T1(T), reveals a complex magnetic behavior at low
temperatures. We argue that it is due to a distribution of singlet-triplet
energy gaps of dimerized V moments. The dimerization process evolves over a
rather broad temperature range around and below 100 K. At the lowest
temperatures the magnetic properties are dominated by the response of only a
minor fraction of the V moments.Comment: 10.5 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Preheating with Trilinear Interactions: Tachyonic Resonance
We investigate the effects of bosonic trilinear interactions in preheating
after chaotic inflation. A trilinear interaction term allows for the complete
decay of the massive inflaton particles, which is necessary for the transition
to radiation domination. We found that typically the trilinear term is
subdominant during early stages of preheating, but it actually amplifies
parametric resonance driven by the four-legs interaction. In cases where the
trilinear term does dominate during preheating, the process occurs through
periodic tachyonic amplifications with resonance effects, which is so effective
that preheating completes within a few inflaton oscillations. We develop an
analytic theory of this process, which we call tachyonic resonance. We also
study numerically the influence of trilinear interactions on the dynamics after
preheating. The trilinear term eventually comes to dominate after preheating,
leading to faster rescattering and thermalization than could occur without it.
Finally, we investigate the role of non-renormalizable interaction terms during
preheating. We find that if they are present they generally dominate (while
still in a controllable regime) in chaotic inflation models. Preheating due to
these terms proceeds through a modified form of tachyonic resonance.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, refs added, published versio
Implementation of an innovative teaching project in a Chemical Process Design course at the University of Cantabria, Spain
This paper shows the planning, the teaching activities and the evaluation of the learning and teaching process implemented in the Chemical Process Design course at the University of Cantabria, Spain. Educational methods to address the knowledge, skills and attitudes that students who complete the course are expected to acquire are proposed and discussed. Undergraduate and graduate engineers' perceptions of the methodology used are evaluated by means of a questionnaire. Results of the teaching activities and the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed case study are discussed in relation to the course characteristics. The findings of the empirical evaluation shows that the excessive time students had to dedicate to the case study project and dealing with limited information are the most negative aspects obtained, whereas an increase in the students' self-confidence and the practical application of the methodology are the most positive aspects. Finally, improvements are discussed in order to extend the application of the methodology to other courses offered as part of the chemical engineering degree.This work was partially supported with the financial help of the University of Cantabria, 1st and 2nd Teaching Innovation Programs 2011-2012, 2013-2014, Projects Innodesign 1 and 2
Commuting difference operators with elliptic coefficients from Baxter's vacuum vestors
For quantum integrable models with elliptic R-matrix, we construct the Baxter
Q-operator in infinite-dimensional representations of the algebra of
observables.Comment: 31 pages, LaTeX, references adde
Bose Einstein condensation at reheating
We discuss the possibility that a perturbative reheating stage after
inflation produces a scalar particle gas in a Bose condensate state,
emphasizing the possible cosmological role of this phenomenon for symmetry
restoration.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Revised version, with an improved analysis of the
condensate formatio
Reheating After Quintessential Inflation and Gravitational Waves
We investigate the dependence of the gravitational wave spectrum from
quintessential inflation on the reheating process. We consider two extreme
reheating processes. One is the gravitational reheating by particle creation in
the expanding universe in which the beginning of the radiation dominated epoch
is delayed due to the presence of the epoch of domination of the kinetic energy
of the inflaton (kination). The other is the instant preheating considered by
Felder et al. in which the Universe becomes radiation dominated soon after the
end of inflation. We find that the spectrum of the gravitational waves at MHz is quite sensitive to the reheating process. This result is not
limited to quintessential inflation but applicable to various inflation models.
Conversely, the detection or non-detection of primordial gravitational waves at
100 MHz would provide useful information regarding the reheating process
in inflation.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, to be published in CQ
DEFROST: A New Code for Simulating Preheating after Inflation
At the end of inflation, dynamical instability can rapidly deposit the energy
of homogeneous cold inflaton into excitations of other fields. This process,
known as preheating, is rather violent, inhomogeneous and non-linear, and has
to be studied numerically. This paper presents a new code for simulating scalar
field dynamics in expanding universe written for that purpose. Compared to
available alternatives, it significantly improves both the speed and the
accuracy of calculations, and is fully instrumented for 3D visualization. We
reproduce previously published results on preheating in simple chaotic
inflation models, and further investigate non-linear dynamics of the inflaton
decay. Surprisingly, we find that the fields do not want to thermalize quite
the way one would think. Instead of directly reaching equilibrium, the
evolution appears to be stuck in a rather simple but quite inhomogeneous state.
In particular, one-point distribution function of total energy density appears
to be universal among various two-field preheating models, and is exceedingly
well described by a lognormal distribution. It is tempting to attribute this
state to scalar field turbulence.Comment: RevTeX 4.0; 16 pages, 9 figure
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