We discuss the recent scenario of tachyonic preheating at the end of inflation as a consequence of a tachyonic mass term in the scalar field responsible for spontaneous symmetry breaking. We use 3D lattice simulations to expore this very non-perturbative and non-linear phenomenon, which occurs due to the spinodal instability of the scalar field. Tachyonic preheating is so efficient that symmetry breaking typically completes within a single oscillation of the field distribution as it rolls towards the minimum of its effective potential.
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