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Title: Parity-violating CMB correlators with non-decaying statistical anisotropy

Journal Article · · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia 'G. Galilei', Università degli Studi di Padova, via Marzolo 8, I-35131, Padova (Italy)
  2. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455 (United States)

We examine the effect induced on cosmological correlators by the simultaneous breaking of parity and of statistical isotropy. As an example of this, we compute the scalar-scalar, scalar-tensor, tensor-tensor and scalar-scalar-scalar cosmological correlators in presence of the coupling L = f(φ) ( − 1/4 F{sup 2} + γ/4 F ∼F ) between the inflaton φ and a vector field with vacuum expectation value  A. For a suitably chosen function f, the energy in the vector field ρ{sub A} does not decay during inflation. This results in nearly scale-invariant signatures of broken statistical isotropy and parity. Specifically, we find that the scalar-scalar correlator of primordial curvature perturbations includes a quadrupolar anisotropy, P{sub ζ}(k) = P(k)[1+g{sub *}( k-circumflex ⋅Â){sup 2}], and a (angle-averaged) scalar bispectrum that is a linear combination of the first 3 Legendre polynomials, B{sub ζ}(k{sub 1}, k{sub 2}, k{sub 3}) = ∑{sub L} c{sub L} P{sub L} ( k-circumflex {sub 1} ⋅  k-circumflex {sub 2}) P(k{sub 1}) P(k{sub 2}) + 2 perms , with c{sub 0}:c{sub 1}:c{sub 2}=2-3:1 (c{sub 1}≠0 is a consequence of parity violation, corresponding to the constant 0γ ≠ ). The latter is one of the main results of this paper, which provides for the first time a clear example of an inflationary model where a non-negligible c{sub 1} contribution to the bispectrum is generated. The scalar-tensor and tensor-tensor correlators induce characteristic signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature anisotropies (T) and polarization (E/B modes); namely, non-diagonal contributions to (a{sub ℓ1m1}a{sup *}{sub ℓ2m2}), with |ℓ{sub 1} − ℓ{sub 2}| = 1 in TT, TE, EE and BB, and |ℓ{sub 1} − ℓ{sub 2}| = 2 in TB and EB. The latest CMB bounds on the scalar observables (g{sub *}, c{sub 0}, c{sub 1} and c{sub 2}), translate into the upper limit ρ{sub A} / ρ{sub φ} ∼< 10{sup −9} at 0γ=. We find that the upper limit on the vector energy density becomes much more stringent as γ grows.

OSTI ID:
22525638
Journal Information:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2015, Issue 07; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English