General analytic predictions of two-field inflation and perturbative reheating

Abstract

The observational signatures of multi-field inflation will generally evolve as the Universe reheats. We introduce a general analytic formalism for tracking this evolution through perturbative reheating, applicable to two field models with arbitrary separable potentials. The various transitions, including the onset of scalar field oscillations and the reheating of each field, can happen in different orders and on arbitrary hypersurfaces. The effective equations of state of the oscillating fields are also arbitrary. Nevertheless, our results are surprisingly simple. Our formalism encapsulates and generalises a huge range of previous calculations including two-field inflation, spectator models, the inhomogeneous end of inflation scenario and numerous generalised curvaton scenarios.