Non-gaussianity from the trispectrum in general single field inflation
Abstract
We compute the fourth order action in perturbation theory for scalar and second order tensor perturbations for a minimally coupled single field inflationary model, where the inflaton's lagrangian is a general function of the field's value and its kinetic energy. We obtain the fourth order action in two gauges, the comoving gauge and the uniform curvature gauge. Using the comoving gauge action we calculate the trispectrum at leading order in slow-roll, finding agreement with a previously known result in the literature. We point out that in general to obtain the correct leading order trispectrum one cannot ignore second order tensor perturbations as previously done by others. The next-to-leading order corrections may become detectable depending on the shape and we provide the necessary formalism to calculate them.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0802.1167,
title = {Non-gaussianity from the trispectrum in general single field inflation},
author = {Frederico Arroja and Kazuya Koyama},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0802.1167},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
v2: reference added, typos corrected, replaced to match published version v3: arguments on the full 4th order interaction hamiltonian corrected