Speaker
Toby Opferkuch
Description
I will present two models for viable gravitational reheating involving a scalar field directly coupled to the Ricci curvature scalar. Crucially to these models are periods of the early Universe where the equation-of-state is stiffer than radiation ($w <1/3$) resulting in tachyonic growth of the scalar fields energy density. In this talk I will detail the phenomenology and delve into scenarios where lattice simulations are required to make concrete predictions, highlighting interesting avenues for future work.
