Savior Curvatons and Large non-Gaussianity

Abstract

Curvatons are light (compared to the Hubble scale during inflation) spectator fields during inflation that potentially contribute to adiabatic curvature perturbations post-inflation. They can alter CMB observables such as the spectral index $n_s$, the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$, and the local non-Gaussianity $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{(\mathrm{loc})}$. We systematically explore the observable space of a curvaton with a quadratic potential. We find that when the underlying inflation model does not satisfy the $n_s$ and $r$ observational constraints but can be made viable with a significant contribution from what we call a savior curvaton, a large $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{(\mathrm{loc})}$ is inevitable. On the other hand, when the underlying inflation model already satisfies the $n_s$ and $r$ observational constraints, so significant curvaton contribution is forbidden, a large $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{(\mathrm{loc})}$ is possible in the exceptional case when the isocurvature fluctuation in the curvaton fluid is much greater than the global curvature fluctuation.

20 pages + appendices, 8 figures