Enhanced Non-Gaussianity from Excited Initial States

Abstract

We use the techniques of effective field theory in an expanding universe to examine the effect of choosing an excited inflationary initial state built over the Bunch-Davies state on the CMB bi-spectrum. We find that even for Hadamard states, there are unexpected enhancements in the bi-spectrum for certain configurations in momentum space due to interactions of modes in the early stages of inflation. These enhancements can be parametrically larger than the standard ones and are potentially observable in current and future data. These initial state effects have a characteristic signature in $l$-space which distinguishes them from the usual contributions, with the enhancement being most pronounced for configurations corresponding to flattened triangles for which two momenta are collinear.

33 pages, 1 figure. Refs added and minor additions

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• The cosmic microwave background temperature bispectrum from scalar perturbations induced by primordial magnetic fields
• $\alpha$-vacuum and inflationary bispectrum
• Where does Cosmological Perturbation Theory Break Down?
• Trans-Planckian enhancements of the primordial non-Gaussianities