According to the inflationary theory of cosmology, most elementary particles in the current Universe were created during a period of reheating after inflation. In this Letter, we self-consistently couple the Einstein-inflaton equations to a strongly coupled quantum field theory as described by holography. We show that this leads to an inflating universe, a reheating phase, and finally a universe dominated by the quantum field theory in thermal equilibrium.

• Received 22 February 2023
• Revised 22 May 2023
• Accepted 24 May 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.251001

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Published by the American Physical Society