title: Gravitational Waves from Oscillons after Inflation.
abstract: We investigate the production of gravitational waves during preheating after inflation in the common case of field potentials that are asymmetric around the minimum. In particular, we study the impact of oscillons, comparatively long lived and spatially localized regions where a scalar field (e.g., the inflaton) oscillates with large amplitude. Contrary to a previous study, which considered a symmetric potential, we find that oscillons in asymmetric potentials associated with a phase transition can generate a pronounced peak in the spectrum of gravitational waves that largely exceeds the linear preheating spectrum. We discuss the possible implications of this enhanced amplitude of gravitational waves. For instance, for low scale inflation models, the contribution from the oscillons can strongly enhance the observation prospects at current and future gravitational wave detectors.
authors.affiliation: Deparment of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstr. 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.|Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut), Föhringer Ring 6, D-80805 München, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Antusch
authors.affiliation: Deparment of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstr. 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cefalà
authors.affiliation: Deparment of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstr. 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Orani