Large Non-Gaussianity in Axion Inflation

Journal Article · Fri May 06 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.106.181301· OSTI ID:21538310

Barnaby, Neil; Peloso, Marco ^[1]

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1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 (United States)

The inflationary paradigm has enjoyed phenomenological success; however, a compelling particle physics realization is still lacking. Axions are among the best-motivated inflaton candidates, since the flatness of their potential is naturally protected by a shift symmetry. We reconsider the cosmological perturbations in axion inflation, consistently accounting for the coupling to gauge fields c{phi}FF-tilde, which is generically present in these models. This coupling leads to production of gauge quanta, which provide a new source of inflaton fluctuations, {delta}{phi}. For c > or approx. 10{sup 2}M{sub p}{sup -1}, these dominate over the vacuum fluctuations, and non-Gaussianity exceeds the current observational bound. This regime is typical for concrete realizations that admit a UV completion; hence, large non-Gaussianity is easily obtained in minimal and natural realizations of inflation.

• OSTI ID: 21538310
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 18; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.181301; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AXIONS
COUPLING
DISTURBANCES
FLUCTUATIONS
PERTURBATION THEORY
POTENTIALS
SYMMETRY
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
BOSONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FIELD THEORIES
GOLDSTONE BOSONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PARTICLE MODELS
POSTULATED PARTICLES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
VARIATIONS