Aspects of wave turbulence in preheating II: Rebirth of the nonminimal coupled models

Abstract

We study the nonlinear stage of preheating in a model consisting of a single inflaton field $\phi$ nonminimally coupled to the spacetime curvature and considering a self-coupling quartic potential V ($\phi$) = $\lambda \phi^4/4$. As the first motivation, we mention that this nonminimally coupled model agrees with the observational data. The second and the central issue of the present work is to exhibit aspects of wave turbulence associated with the mechanism of energy transfer from the inflaton field to the inhomogeneous fluctuations towards a state of thermalization. The imprints of the turbulence phase are mainly shown in the power spectra in time and wavenumber of relevant quantities such as the variance and the energy density of the inflaton field. We performed the simulations for several values of the nonminimally coupled models and taking into account the backreaction of the inflaton fluctuations in the dynamics of the Universe, and that allowed to determine the effective equation of state.