Related papers: Tensor Squeezed Limits and the Higuchi Bound
Tensor non-Gaussianity represents an important future probe of the physics of inflation. Inspired by recent works, we elaborate further on the possibility of significant primordial tensor non-Gaussianities sourced by extra fields during…
During single clock inflation, hidden fields (i.e. fields coupled to the inflaton only gravitationally) in their adiabatic vacua can ordinarily only affect observables through virtual effects. After renormalizing background quantities…
We develop a scenario of inflation with spontaneously broken time and space diffeomorphisms, with distinctive features for the primordial tensor modes. Inflationary tensor fluctuations are non adiabatic, and can acquire a mass during the…
The existence of light particles with spin during inflation is prohibited by the Higuchi bound. This conclusion can be evaded if one considers states with a sizeable coupling with the inflaton foliation, since this breaks the de Sitter…
Higher-curvature corrections to the effective gravitational action may leave signatures in the spectrum of primordial tensor perturbations if the inflationary energy scale is sufficiently high. In this paper we further investigate the…
The braneworld cosmology, in which our universe is imbedded as a hypersurface in a higher dimensional bulk, has the peculiar property that the inflationary consistency relation derived in a four-dimensional cosmology persists. This…
For icosahedral inflation, we compute the tensor modes' two-point function in the presence of higher derivative corrections, and show that in general this features anisotropies that are aligned with the underlying icosahedral structure. The…
The linear and quadratic perturbations for a scalar-tensor model with non-minimal coupling to curvature, coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant and non-minimal kinetic coupling to the Einstein tensor are developed. The quadratic action for…
Evidence for the presence of extra fields during inflation may be found in the anisotropies of the scalar and tensor spectra across a vast range of scales. Indeed, beyond the single-field slow-roll paradigm, a long tensor mode can modulate…
Inflation models make specific predictions for a tensor-scalar-scalar three-point correlation, or bispectrum, between one gravitational-wave (tensor) mode and two density-perturbation (scalar) modes. This tensor-scalar-scalar correlation…
The representation theory of de Sitter space allows for a category of partially massless particles which have no flat space analog, but could have existed during inflation. We study the couplings of these exotic particles to inflationary…
Matter bounces are bouncing scenarios wherein the universe contracts as in a matter dominated phase at early times. Such scenarios are known to lead to a scale invariant spectrum of tensor perturbations just as de Sitter inflation does. In…
According to the dS/CFT correspondence, correlators of fields generated during a primordial de Sitter phase are constrained by three-dimensional conformal invariance. Using the properties of radially quantized conformal field theories and…
We derive consistency relations for correlators of scalar cosmological perturbations which hold in the "squeezed limit" in which one or more of the external momenta become soft. Our results are formulated as relations between suitably…
An important property of the three-point functions generated in the early universe is the so-called consistency condition. According to the condition, in the squeezed limit wherein the wavenumber of one of the three modes (constituting the…
In a recent paper [17], we studied the evolution of the background geometry and scalar perturbations in an inflationary, spatially closed Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model having constant positive spatial curvature and…
Massive bigravity, a theoretically consistent modification of general relativity with an additional dynamical rank two tensor, successfully describes the observed accelerated expansion of the Universe without a cosmological constant. Recent…
Tensor modes in the cosmic microwave background are one of the most robust signatures of inflation. We derive theoretical bounds on the tensor fraction, as a generalization of the well-known Lyth bound. Under reasonable assumptions, the new…
Generically, the gravitational-wave or tensor-mode contribution to the primordial curvature spectrum of inflation is tiny if the field-range of the inflaton is much smaller than the Planck scale. We show that this pessimistic conclusion is…
The recent BICEP2 detection of degree scale CMB B-mode polarization, coupled with a deficit of observed power in large angle temperature anisotropy, suggest that the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon_H$, the fractional variation in the Hubble…