Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

We have a good story, even with evidence, that all structure in the universe evolved from the diffusion of quantum-fluctuations that broke the adiabaticity of coarse-grained kinematic field trajectories during inflation. I will describe the use of dynamical systems theory to understand the subsequent complex linear preheating epoch, using Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy to measure the various instabilities that can arise, followed by the highly nonlinear classical-fluctuation generation during heating, as measured by coarse-grained Shannon entropy (the entropy we observe here and now). The kinematical entropic picture extends to short-lived instabilities while inflation is ongoing. A possible observable manifestation is non-standard non-Gaussianities that are so far not strongly constrained.