Reheating of the universe after inflation with f(phi)R gravity

Abstract

We show that reheating of the universe occurs spontaneously in a broad class of inflation models with f(phi)R gravity (phi is inflaton). The model does not require explicit couplings between phi and bosonic or fermionic matter fields. The couplings arise spontaneously when phi settles in the vacuum expectation value (vev) and oscillates, with coupling constants given by derivatives of f(phi) at the vev and the mass of resulting bosonic or fermionic fields. This mechanism allows inflaton quanta to decay into any fields which are not conformally invariant in f(phi)R gravity theories.