Flat Direction Dynamics in a Non-Topological Soliton-Dominated Universe

In running mass inflation and hybrid inflation models it is possible that the inflaton field will fragment into non-topological solitons, resulting in a highly inhomogeneous post-inflation era prior to reheating. In supersymmetric models with a conventional homogeneous post-inflation era, the dynamics of flat direction scalars are determined by cH corrections to the mass squared terms (where |c| ≈ 1), coming from F-terms in the early Universe combined with Planck-scale suppressed interactions. Here we reconsider the mass squared corrections for a Universe dominated by inflatonic non-topological solitons. We show that in this case the dynamics of a coherently oscillating flat direction scalar are typically the same as for the case where there is no significant mass squared correction, even in the vicinity of the non-topological solitons. Therefore the dynamics of flat direction scalars in a Universe dominated by inflatonic non-topological solitons are equivalent to the case c = 0 of a homogeneous Universe. [email protected]