  We study preheating in a general class of supersymmetric hybrid inflation
model. Supersymmetry leads to only one coupling constant in the potential and
thus only one natural frequency of oscillation for the homogeneous fields,
whose classical evolution consequently differs from that of a general
(non-supersymmetric) hybrid model. We emphasise the importance of mixing
effects in these models which can significantly change the rate of production
of particles. We perform a general study of the rate of production of the
particles associated with the homogeneous fields, and show how preheating is
efficient in producing these quanta. Preheating of other particle species will
be model dependent, and in order to investigate this we consider a realistic
working model of supersymmetric hybrid inflation which solves the strong-CP
problem via an approximate Peccei-Quinn symmetry, which was proposed by us
previously. We study axion production in this model and show that properly
taking into account the mixing between the fields suppresses the axion
production, yet enhances the production of other particles. Finally we
demonstrate the importance of backreaction effects in this model which have the
effect of shutting off axion production, leaving the axion safely within
experimental bounds.
