Quintessential inflation on the brane and the relic gravity wave background

Quintessential inflation describes a scenario in which both inflation and dark energy (quintessence) are described by the same scalar field. In conventional braneworld models of quintessential inflation gravitational particle-production is used to reheat the universe. This reheating mechanism is very inefficient and results in an excessive production of gravity waves which violate nucleosynthesis constraints and invalidate the model. We describe a new method of realizing quintessential inflation on the brane in which inflation is followed by 'instant preheating' (Felder, Kofman & Linde 1999). The larger reheating temperature in this model results in a smaller amplitude of relic gravity waves which is consistent with nucleosynthesis bounds. The relic gravity wave background has a 'blue' spectrum at high frequencies and is a generic byproduct of successful quintessential inflation on the brane.