Primordial polymer perturbations

Journal Article · Mon Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2012/10/041· OSTI ID:22279650

Seahra, Sanjeev S.; Husain, Viqar ^[1]; Brown, Iain A. ^[2]

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1. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3 (Canada)
2. Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1029 Blindern, N-0315 Oslo (Norway)

We study the generation of primordial fluctuations in pure de Sitter inflation where the quantum scalar field dynamics are governed by polymer (not Schroedinger) quantization. This quantization scheme is related to, but distinct from, the structures employed in Loop Quantum Gravity; and it modifies standard results above a polymer energy scale M{sub *}. We recover the scale invariant Harrison Zel'dovich spectrum for modes that have wavelengths bigger than M{sub *}{sup −1} at the start of inflation. The primordial spectrum for modes with initial wavelengths smaller than M{sub *}{sup −1} exhibits oscillations superimposed on the standard result. The amplitude of these oscillations is proportional to the ratio of the inflationary Hubble parameter H to the polymer energy scale. For reasonable choices of M{sub *}, we find that polymer effects are likely unobservable in CMB angular power spectra due to cosmic variance uncertainty, but future probes of baryon acoustic oscillations may be able to directly constrain the ratio H/M{sub *}.

• OSTI ID: 22279650
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 2012; ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BARYONS
COSMOLOGY
DE SITTER GROUP
DE SITTER SPACE
DISTURBANCES
FLUCTUATIONS
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
INFLATONS
OSCILLATIONS
QUANTIZATION
QUANTUM GRAVITY
SCALAR FIELDS