Probing the primordial power spectra with inflationary priors

Abstract

We investigate constraints on power spectra of the primordial curvature and tensor perturbations with priors based on single-field slow-roll inflation models. We stochastically draw the Hubble slow-roll parameters and generate the primordial power spectra using the inflationary flow equations. Using data from recent observations of CMB and several measurements of geometrical distances in the late Universe, Bayesian parameter estimation and model selection are performed for models that have separate priors on the slow-roll parameters. The same analysis is also performed adopting the standard parameterization of the primordial power spectra. We confirmed that the scale-invariant Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum is disfavored with increased significance from previous studies. While current observations appear to be optimally modeled with some simple models of single-field slow-roll inflation, data is not enough constraining to distinguish these models.

23 pages, 3 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in JCAP

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• Single-field inflation constraints from CMB and SDSS data
• Sparsity and the Bayesian Perspective
• Application of Bayesian model averaging to measurements of the primordial power spectrum
• Horizon-preserving dualities and perturbations in non-canonical scalar field cosmologies