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Reheating dynamics affects non-perturbative decay of spectator fields

The behaviour of oscillating scalar spectator fields after inflation depends on the thermal background produced by inflaton decay. Resonant decay of the spectator is often blocked by large induced thermal masses. We account for the finite decay width of the inflaton and the protracted build-up of the thermal bath to determine the early evolution of a homogeneous spectator field, σ, coupled to the Higgs Boson, Φ, through the term g^2 σ^2 Φ^2, the only renormalisable coupling of a new scalar to the Standard Model. We find that for very large higgs-spectator coupling g > 10^{-3}, the resonance is not always blocked as was previously suggested. As a consequence, the oscillating spectator can decay quickly. For other parameter values, we find that although qualitative features of the thermal blocking still hold, the dynamics are altered compared to the instant decay case. These findings are important for curvaton models, where the oscillating field must be relatively long lived in order to produce the curvature perturbation. They are also relevant for other spectator fields, which must decay sufficiently early to avoid spoiling the predictions of baryogenesis and nucleosynthesis.