Inflaton condensate fragmentation: Analytical conditions and application to $\alpha$-attractor models

Abstract

We study the stability of an inflaton condensate in the presence of attractive inflaton self-interactions, in order to determine analytical conditions on the self-interaction couplings under which the condensate undergoes fragmentation. As an application of our results, we consider the stability of the inflaton condensate in $\alpha$-attractor inflation. We show that the stability of the condensate depends upon the value of $\alpha$. For the T-model with $n=1$, we find that it is unstable for $\alpha \lesssim 10^{-4}$. In this case it is expected that inflation will be followed by an oscillon-dominated era.

v3: PRD published version

References in corpus (4)

• The Unity of Cosmological Attractors
• Planck, LHC, and $\alpha$-attractors
• Inflaton Fragmentation and Oscillon Formation in Three Dimensions
• Gravitational waves from oscillons after inflation

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Sub-Planckian ${\varphi }^2$ Inflation in the Palatini Formulation of Gravity with an $R^2$ term
• Oscillon formation during inflationary preheating with general relativity
• Oscillon formation from preheating in asymmetric inflationary potentials
• Inflaton fragmentation in E-models of cosmological $\alpha$-attractors
• The Linear Regime of Tachyonic Preheating
• General Analytical Conditions for Inflaton Fragmentation: Quick and Easy Tests for its Occurrence
• Constraining the inflaton potential with gravitational waves from oscillons