Primordial perturbations and non-Gaussianities from modulated trapping

Journal Article · Sat Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2009/08/014· OSTI ID:22273222

Langlois, David ^[1]; Sorbo, Lorenzo ^[2]

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1. APC (Astroparticules et Cosmologie), UMR 7164 (CNRS, Université Paris 7), 10, rue Alice Domon et Léonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13 (France)
2. Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States)

We propose a new mechanism to generate primordial curvature perturbations, based on the resonant production of particles during inflation. It is known that this phenomenon can trap the inflaton for a fraction of e-fold. This effect is governed by the mass of the produced particles and by their coupling to the inflaton, parameters which can depend on the expectation value of other fields. If one of such additional fields—a modulaton—is light, then its fluctuations, acquired during the earlier stages of inflation, will induce a spatial modulation of the trapping, and thus of the end of inflation, corresponding to a curvature perturbation. We calculate the power spectrum, bispectrum and trispectrum of the curvature perturbations generated by this mechanism, taking into account the perturbations due to the inflaton fluctuations as well. We find that modulated trapping could provide the main contribution to the observed power spectrum and lead to detectable primordial non-gaussianities.

• OSTI ID: 22273222
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Journal Issue: 08 Vol. 2009; ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY
COUPLING
DISTURBANCES
ENERGY SPECTRA
EXPECTATION VALUE
FLUCTUATIONS
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
INFLATONS
MODULATION
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
TRAPPING
TRAPS
VISIBLE RADIATION