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We discuss thermalization through perturbative inflaton decay at the end ofinflation. We find that a thermal plasma should form well before all inflatonshave decayed, unless all gauge symmetries are badly broken during that epoch.However, before they thermalize, the very energetic inflaton decay products cancontribute to the production of massive stable particles, either throughcollisions with the thermal plasma, or through collisions with each other. Ifsuch reactions exist, the same massive particles can also be produced directlyin inflaton decay, once higher--order processes are included. We show thatthese new, non--thermal production mechanisms often significantly strengthenconstraints on the parameters of models containing massive stable particles;for example, stable charged particles with mass below the inflaton mass seem tobe essentially excluded.Comment: Revtex, 18 pages, 3 figures, uses axodraw. References added. Final  version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Thermalization after inflation and production of massive stable particles