Optimising Inflationary Features the Bayesian Way

Abstract

Modern cosmological data demand modern data analysis techniques. We introduce BayOp, a new likelihood sampling and maximisation method which is based on the Bayesian Optimisation algorithm and learns a function instead of randomly sampling from it. We apply BayOp to analyse Planck data for traces of inflationary features models with global periodic modulations of the primordial power spectrum. While we do not find any new evidence for features, we demonstrate that BayOp provides an extremely efficient way of sampling likelihoods over low-to-moderate-dimensional parameter spaces, even for very complex likelihood landscapes.

arXiv comment27 pages, 9 figures, added references and clarifications - matches published version

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Euclid: The search for primordial features
• Back to the features: assessing the discriminating power of future CMB missions on inflationary models
• Knot reconstruction of the scalar primordial power spectrum with Planck, ACT, and SPT CMB data
• Refining the nonlinear modelling of primordial oscillatory features
• A search for super-imposed oscillations to the primordial power spectrum in Planck and SPT-3G 2018 data
• Non-Gaussianity from explicit $U(1)$-breaking interactions