Reheating and thermalization in a simple scalar model

Abstract

We consider a simple model for the Universe reheating, which consists of a single self--interacting scalar field in Minkowskian space--time. Making use of the existence of an additional small parameter proportional to the amplitude of the initial spatially homogeneous field oscillations, we show that the behavior of the field can be found reliably. We describe the evolution of the system from the homogeneous oscillations to the moment when thermalization is completed. We compare our results with the Hartree--Fock approximation and argue that some properties found for this model may be the common features of realistic theories.