University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Localized correlated features in the CMB power spectrum and primordial bispectrum from a transient reduction in the speed of sound

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 00:35 authored by Ana Achúcarro, Vicente Atal, Pablo Ortiz, Jesus Torrado Cacho
The first year of observations by the Planck satellite mission shows that the cosmic microwave background fluctuations are consistent with Gaussian statistics in the primordial perturbations, a key prediction of the simplest models of inflation. However, there are hints of anomalies in the cosmic microwave background power spectrum and bispectrum. We check for the possibility that some of these anomalous features have a common physical origin in a transient reduction of the inflaton speed of sound. We do this by exploiting predicted correlations between the power spectrum and bispectrum. Our results suggest that current data might already be sensitive enough to detect transient reductions in the speed of sound as mild as a few percent. Since this is a signature of interactions, it opens a new window for the detection of extra degrees of freedom during inflation.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

ISSN

1550-7998

Publisher

American Physical Society

Issue

10

Volume

89

Department affiliated with

  • Physics and Astronomy Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-03-15

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC