English

Tensor Squeezed Limits and the Higuchi Bound

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2016-10-05 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We point out that tensor consistency relations-i.e. the behavior of primordial correlation functions in the limit a tensor mode has a small momentum-are more universal than scalar consistency relations. They hold in the presence of multiple scalar fields and as long as anisotropies are diluted exponentially fast. When de Sitter isometries are approximately respected during inflation this is guaranteed by the Higuchi bound, which forbids the existence of light particles with spin: De Sitter space can support scalar hair but no curly hair. We discuss two indirect ways to look for the violation of tensor con- sistency relations in observations, as a signature of models in which inflation is not a strong isotropic attractor, such as solid inflation: (a) Graviton exchange contribution to the scalar four-point function; (b) Quadrupolar anisotropy of the scalar power spectrum due to super-horizon tensor modes. This anisotropy has a well-defined statistics which can be distinguished from cases in which the background has a privileged direction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1605.08424,
  title  = {Tensor Squeezed Limits and the Higuchi Bound},
  author = {Lorenzo Bordin and Paolo Creminelli and Mehrdad Mirbabayi and Jorge Noreña},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1605.08424},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

21 pages. v2: minor changes, matches JCAP version

R2 v1 2026-06-22T14:10:37.209Z