Production of gravitational waves from preheating and tachyonic instabilities
Abstract
Abstract We analyze GW production during self-resonant preheating with energy transfer via ϕχ 2 , in which ϕ and χ correspond to the inflaton and the daughter field, respectively. Linear Floquet analysis and nonlinear simulations show that ϕ fluctuations grow by parametric resonance, while χ undergoes tachyonic bursts. The dominant contribution to the GW spectrum arises from parametric resonance in the case of an effective quartic potential, with model parameters consistent with CMB observations. In a well-motivated α -attractor inflationary scenario, the present-day redshifted spectrum attains a peak amplitude of h 2 Ω GW (0) ∼ 10 -11 at a peak frequency f p (0) ∼ 10 7 Hz.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Volume
- 2026
- Issue
- 07
- Pages
- 056–056
- Publication date
- 1 July 2026