Unique Fingerprints of Alternatives to Inflation in the Primordial Power Spectrum

Abstract

Massive fields in the primordial universe function as standard clocks and imprint clock signals in the density perturbations that directly record the scale factor of the primordial universe as a function of time, a(t). A measurement of such signals would identify the specific scenario of the primordial universe in a model-independent fashion. In this Letter, we introduce a new mechanism through which quantum fluctuations of massive fields function as standard clocks. The clock signals appear as scale-dependent oscillatory signals in the power spectrum of alternative scenarios to inflation.

8 pages; v3, LSS forecast added and other minor revisions. A slightly shortened version will appear in PRL

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Cited by in corpus (29)

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• The challenge of ruling out inflation via the primordial graviton background
• Helical Inflation Correlators: Partial Mellin-Barnes and Bootstrap Equations
• Scratches from the Past: Inflationary Archaeology through Features in the Power Spectrum of Primordial Fluctuations
• Bootstrapping One-Loop Inflation Correlators with the Spectral Decomposition
• Large-Field Inflation and the Cosmological Collider
• Revisiting non-Gaussianity in multifield inflation with curved field space
• Closed-Form Formulae for Inflation Correlators
• On the inflationary massive field with a curved field manifold
• Uncovering the History of Cosmic Inflation from Anomalies in Cosmic Microwave Background Spectra
• Planck residuals anomaly as a fingerprint of alternative scenarios to inflation
• Comparing multi-field primordial feature models with the Planck data
• Continuous Spectrum on Cosmological Collider
• Lensing anomaly and oscillations in the primordial power spectrum
• New constraints on primordial features from the galaxy two-point correlation function
• Primordial features from ekpyrotic bounces
• Analytic Formulae for Inflationary Correlators with Dynamical Mass
• Fingerprints of a Non-Inflationary Universe from Massive Fields
• Non-Gaussian CMB and LSS statistics beyond polyspectra
• Scalar induced gravitational waves review
• Cuscuton Bounce Beyond the Linear Regime: Bispectrum and Strong Coupling Constraints
• Non-Standard Primordial Clocks from Dynamical Mass in Alternative to Inflation Scenarios
• Refining the nonlinear modelling of primordial oscillatory features
• Investigating the Origin of CMB Large-Scale Features Using LiteBIRD and CMB-S4
• Warm and Cold Dark Matter in Bouncing Universe