Some Aspects of Inflationary Particle Production

Particle production by a varying mass term and by the background metric are considered. We derive a definition of particle number in kinetic theory for both, fermionic and scalar case, which we generalize to the situation of a flavour-mixing mass matrix. This allows us to endow the process of preheating with C and CP violation, leading to the coherent baryogenesis scenario. We present models where this mechanism is operative in the context of hybrid inflation and the grand unified theories Pati-Salam and SO(10). It is shown that a baryon asymmetry in accordance with observation may result. Moreover, we consider issues of quantum theory in curved space. Scalar fields in the expanding Universe and in Rindler space are discussed. It turns out that besides the particle detection rate, the Lamb shift of energy levels is an important effect experienced by Unruh's detector in these spacetimes.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Heidelberg

Year

2005

Author dc:creator

• Garbrecht, Björn

Contributors dc:contributor

• Schmidt, Michael G.

Repository record source_url

http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/archiv/5641

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de:5641