Observational Signatures of Gravitational Couplings in DBI Inflation
Abstract
In scalar-tensor theories the scalar fields generically couple nontrivially to gravity. We study the observable properties of inflationary models with non-minimally coupled inflaton and Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) kinetic term. Within the assumptions of the priors of our Monte-Carlo simulations we find these models can generate new interesting observable signatures. Our discussion focuses on string theory inspired phenomenological models of relativistic D-brane inflation. While successful string theory constructions of ultra-violet DBI brane inflation remain elusive, we show that in suitable regions of the parameter space it is possible to use cosmological observables to probe the non-minimial coupling. Fortunately, the most observationally promising range of parameters include models yielding intermediate levels of non-gaussianity in the range consistent with WMAP 5-year data, and to be constrained further by the Planck satellite.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0910.1353,
title = {Observational Signatures of Gravitational Couplings in DBI Inflation},
author = {Damien A. Easson and Shinji Mukohyama and Brian A. Powell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0910.1353},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
Minor revisions and references added. Version to appear in PRD