Related papers: Signatures of Initial State Modifications on Bispe…
We use the techniques of effective field theory in an expanding universe to examine the effect of choosing an excited inflationary initial state built over the Bunch-Davies state on the CMB bi-spectrum. We find that even for Hadamard…
We investigate the phenomenological consequences of a modification of the initial state of a single inflationary field. While single-field inflation with the standard Bunch-Davies initial vacuum state does not generally produce a measurable…
If time-dependent disruptions from slow-roll occur during inflation, the correlation functions of the primordial curvature perturbation should have scale-dependent features, a case which is marginally supported from the cosmic microwave…
We review how initial state effects generically yield an oscillatory component in the primordial power spectrum of inflationary density perturbations. These oscillatory corrections parametrize unknown new physics at a scale $M$ and are…
We investigate the CMB $\mu$ distortion in models where two uncorrelated sources contribute to primordial perturbations. We parameterise each source by an amplitude, tilt, running and running of the running. We perform a detailed analysis…
It has been shown that both scalar and tensor modes with non-Bunch-Davies initial states can enhance the amplitudes of the primordial bispectra compared to those with the Bunch-Davies state, especially for wavenumber modes in a flattened…
We investigate the degree to which the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) can be used to constrain primordial non-Gaussianity coming from the presence of spinning particles coupled to the inflaton. We compute the $\langle TTT \rangle$ and…
Recent analysis of the WMAP and Planck data have shown the presence of a dip and a bump in the spectrum of primordial perturbations at the scales $k=0.002$ Mpc${}^{-1}$ and $k=0.0035$ Mpc${}^{-1}$ respectively. We analyze for the first time…
The standard, scale-invariant, inflationary perturbation spectrum will be modified if the effects of trans-Planckian physics are incorporated into the dynamics of the matter field in a phenomenological manner, say, by the modification of…
It has been found that the primordial non-Gaussianity of the curvature perturbation in the case of non-Bunch-Davies initial states can be enhanced compared with those in the case of the Bunch-Davies one due to the interactions among the…
We derive the expressions for the 1-loop corrections in cosmological, Eulerian, perturbation theory to the matter bispectrum and to the galaxy bispectrum, assuming local galaxy bias, in presence of non-Gaussian initial conditions. We…
We investigate if the hemispherical asymmetry in the CMB is produced from "asymmetric" excited initial condition. We show that in the limit where the deviations from the Bunch-Davies vacuum is large and the scale of new physics is maximally…
In a Quantum Field Theory with a time-dependent background, time-translational symmetry is broken. We therefore expect time-dependent loop corrections to cosmological observables after renormalization for an interacting field, with the…
In order to gain new insights into the gauge field couplings in the early universe, we consider the constraints on gauge field production during inflation imposed by requiring that their effect on the CMB anisotropies are subdominant. In…
We study the covariance in the angular power spectrum estimates of CMB fluctuations when the primordial fluctuations are non-Gaussian. The non-Gaussian covariance comes from a nonzero connected four-point correlation function -- or the…
Deviations from the Bunch-Davies vacuum during an inflationary period can leave a testable imprint on the higher-order correlations of the CMB and large scale structures in the Universe. The effect is particularly pronounced if the…
A sudden small change in the second derivative of the inflaton potential can result in a universal local feature in the spectrum of primordial perturbations generated during inflation. The exact solution describing this feature \cite{minu}…
We compute the primordial trispectrum for curvature perturbations produced during cosmic inflation in models with standard kinetic terms, when the initial quantum state is not necessarily the vacuum state. The presence of initial…
We build upon previous analytical treatments of scalar perturbations in curved inflationary universes to obtain analytical templates for the primordial tensor power spectrum in models with non-zero primordial spatial curvature. These…
The leading candidate for the very early universe is described by a period of rapid expansion known as inflation. While the standard paradigm invokes a single slow-rolling field, many different models may be constructed which fit the…