Published May 1, 2018 | Version v1
Journal article

Vanishing of local non-Gaussianity in canonical single field inflation

  • 1. Grupo de Cosmología y Astrofísica Teórica, Departamento de Física, FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Blanco Encalada 2008, Santiago (Chile)

Description

We study the production of observable primordial local non-Gaussianity in two opposite regimes of canonical single field inflation: attractor (standard single field slow-roll inflation) and non attractor (ultra slow-roll inflation). In the attractor regime, the standard derivation of the bispectrum's squeezed limit using co-moving coordinates gives the well known Maldacena's consistency relation fNL = 5 (1−ns) / 12. On the other hand, in the non-attractor regime, the squeezed limit offers a substantial violation of this relation given by fNL = 5/2. In this work we argue that, independently of whether inflation is attractor or non-attractor, the size of the observable primordial local non-Gaussianity is predicted to be fNLobs = 0 (a result that was already understood to hold in the case of attractor models). To show this, we follow the use of the so-called Conformal Fermi Coordinates (CFC), recently introduced in the literature. These coordinates parametrize the local environment of inertial observers in a perturbed FRW spacetime, allowing one to identify and compute gauge invariant quantities, such as n-point correlation functions. Concretely, we find that during inflation, after all the modes have exited the horizon, the squeezed limit of the 3-point correlation function of curvature perturbations vanishes in the CFC frame, regardless of the inflationary regime. We argue that such a cancellation should persist after inflation ends.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2018/05/025

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Journal Volume
2018
Journal Issue
05
Journal Page Range
p. 025
ISSN
1475-7516

INIS

Country of Publication
United Kingdom
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
51061986
Subject category
S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
Descriptors DEI
COORDINATES; CORRELATION FUNCTIONS; GAUGE INVARIANCE; INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE; PERTURBATION THEORY; SPACE-TIME; STANDARDS
Descriptors DEC
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS; FUNCTIONS; INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES; MATHEMATICAL MODELS