English

Primordial Perturbations in Einstein-Aether and BPSH Theories

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2015-03-13 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We study the primordial perturbations generated during a stage of single-field inflation in Einstein-aether theories. Quantum fluctuations of the inflaton and aether fields seed long wavelength adiabatic and isocurvature scalar perturbations, as well as transverse vector perturbations. Geometrically, the isocurvature mode is the potential for the velocity field of the aether with respect to matter. For a certain range of parameters, this mode may lead to a sizable random velocity of the aether within the observable universe. The adiabatic mode corresponds to curvature perturbations of co-moving slices (where matter is at rest). In contrast with the standard case, it has a non-vanishing anisotropic stress on large scales. Scalar and vector perturbations may leave significant imprints on the cosmic microwave background. We calculate their primordial spectra, analyze their contributions to the temperature anisotropies, and formulate some of the phenomenological constraints that follow from observations. These may be used to further tighten the existing limits on the parameters for this class of theories. The results for the scalar sector also apply to the extension of Horava gravity recently proposed by Blas, Pujolas and Sibiriakov.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1003.1283,
  title  = {Primordial Perturbations in Einstein-Aether and BPSH Theories},
  author = {Cristian Armendariz-Picon and Noela Farina Sierra and Jaume Garriga},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1003.1283},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

30 pages, 2 figures. v3: Added references & minor corrections.

R2 v1 2026-06-21T14:54:19.135Z