  Can super-Hubble metric perturbations be amplified exponentially during
preheating ? Yes. An analytical existence proof is provided by exploiting the
conformal properties of massless inflationary models. The traditional conserved
quantity \zeta is non-conserved in many regions of parameter space. We include
backreaction through the homogeneous parts of the inflaton and preheating
fields and discuss the role of initial conditions on the post-preheating
power-spectrum. Maximum field variances are strongly underestimated if metric
perturbations are ignored. We illustrate this in the case of strong
self-interaction of the decay products. Without metric perturbations,
preheating in this case is very inefficient. However, metric perturbations
increase the maximum field variances and give alternative channels for the
resonance to proceed. This implies that metric perturbations can have a large
impact on calculations of relic abundances of particles produced during
preheating.
