Phase transitions from preheating in gauge theories

Abstract

We show by studying the Abelian Higgs model with numerical lattice simulations that non-thermal phase transitions arising out of preheating after inflation are possible in gauge-Higgs models under rather general circumstances. This may lead to the formation of gauged topological defects and, if the scale at which inflation ends is low enough, to electroweak baryogenesis after preheating.

Comments: 4 pages, 2 figures, uses REVTeX. Parameter values for one of the simulations corrected. To be published in PRL (http://prl.aps.org/)