Related papers: Signatures of Initial State Modifications on Bispe…
Perturbations in cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons and large scale structure of the universe are sourced primarily by the curvature perturbation which is widely believed to be produced during inflation. In this paper we present a…
We investigate the primordial non-Gaussianities from the trispectra in multi-field inflation models, which can be seen as generalization of multi-field $k$-inflation and multi-DBI inflation. We derive the full fourth-order perturbation…
We develop methods to calculate the curvature power spectrum in models where features in the inflaton potential nonlinearly excite modes and generate high frequency features in the spectrum. The first nontrivial effect of excitations…
We investigate possible signatures of a pre-inflationary anisotropic phase in two-point and three-point correlation functions of the curvature perturbation for high-momentum modes which exit the horizon after isotropization. In this…
The non-Gaussianity of inflationary perturbations, as encoded in the bispectrum (or 3-point correlator), has become an important additional way of distinguishing between inflation models, going beyond the linear Gaussian perturbation…
Recent observations opened up a new window on the inflationary model building. As it was firstly reported by the WMAP data, there may be some indications of statistical anisotropy on the CMB map, although the statistical significance of…
We study the observational implications of a class of inflationary models wherein the inflaton is coupled to the Einstein tensor through a generalized non-minimal derivative coupling (GNMDC). In particular, we explore whether these models…
We study the effects of a class of features of the inflaton potential, corresponding to discontinuties in its derivatives. We perform fully numerical calculations and derive analytical approximations for the curvature pertubations spectrum…
We propose that cosmological density perturbation may originate from passive fluctuations of the inflaton, which are induced by colored quantum noise due to the coupling of the inflaton to the quantum environment. At small scales, the…
After the precise observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy power spectrum, attention is now being focused on the higher order statistics of the CMB anisotropies. Since linear evolution preserves the statistical…
Amongst the multitude of inflationary models currently available, models that lead to features in the primordial scalar spectrum are drawing increasing attention, since certain features have been found to provide a better fit to the CMB…
We study the angular bispectrum of local type arising from the (possibly correlated) combination of a primordial adiabatic mode with an isocurvature one. Generically, this bispectrum can be decomposed into six elementary bispectra. We…
We investigate the signatures in the squeezed limit of the primordial scalar bispectrum due to modifications of the standard theory at high energy. In particular, we consider the cases of modified dispersion relations and/or modified…
The inflaton field responsible for inflation may not be a canonical fundamental scalar. It is possible that the inflaton is a composite of fermions or it may have a decay width. In these cases the standard procedure for calculating the…
We compute the 3-point correlation function for a general model of inflation driven by a single, minimally coupled scalar field. Our approach is based on the numerical evaluation of both the perturbation equations and the integrals which…
The damping of primordial perturbations at small scales gives rise to distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Here, the dependence of the distortion on the different types of cosmological initial conditions is explored,…
We propose optimal estimators for bispectra from excited states. Two common properties of such bispectra are the enhancement in the collinear limit, and the prediction of oscillating features. We review the physics behind excited states and…
We propose that several of the anomalies that have been observed at large angular scales in the CMB have a common origin in a cosmic bounce that took place before the inflationary era. The bounce introduces a new physical scale in the…
Sudden phase transitions during inflation can give rise to strongly enhanced primordial density perturbations on scales much smaller than those directly probed by cosmic microwave background anisotropies. In this paper, we study the effect…
Simple curvaton models can generate a mixture of of correlated primordial adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations. The baryon and cold dark matter isocurvature modes differ only by an observationally null mode in which the two…