Mimicking alternatives to inflation with interacting spectator fields

Abstract

It has been argued that oscillatory features from spectator fields in the primordial power spectrum could be a probe of alternatives to inflation. In this work, we soften this claim by showing that the frequency and amplitude dependence of the patterns appearing in these scenarios could be mimicked by field interactions during inflation. The degeneracy of the frequency holds for the $n$-point correlation functions, while the degeneracy of the amplitude is broken at the level of non-gaussianities.

arXiv comment8 pages, 4 figures, added references and clarifications - matches published version

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• The Gravitational-Wave Physics II: Progress
• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• Phase Information in Cosmological Collider Signals
• Helical Inflation Correlators: Partial Mellin-Barnes and Bootstrap Equations
• Classical Cosmological Collider Physics and Primordial Features
• Uncovering the History of Cosmic Inflation from Anomalies in Cosmic Microwave Background Spectra
• Planck residuals anomaly as a fingerprint of alternative scenarios to inflation
• Lensing anomaly and oscillations in the primordial power spectrum
• Back to the features: assessing the discriminating power of future CMB missions on inflationary models
• Fingerprints of a Non-Inflationary Universe from Massive Fields
• Optimising Inflationary Features the Bayesian Way
• Scalar induced gravitational waves review
• The cosmological collider in $R^2$ inflation
• Non-Standard Primordial Clocks from Dynamical Mass in Alternative to Inflation Scenarios
• Investigating the Constraints on Primordial Features with Future Cosmic Microwave Background and Galaxy Surveys