Audible curvaton: modulated phase transition as the origin of large-scale curvature perturbations and gravitational wave anisotropies

Abstract

We propose a post-inflationary first-order phase transition modulated by a light spectator field as the origin of primordial large-scale curvature perturbations. Spectator fluctuations acquired during inflation modulate the bubble nucleation history, generating curvature perturbations together with correlated intrinsic gravitational-wave (GW) anisotropies. We show that this mechanism can reproduce the observed amplitude of curvature perturbations while producing a loud stochastic GW background in the frequency bands of space-based detectors such as LISA, Taiji, and TianQin. A concrete benchmark yields strongly enhanced intrinsic GW anisotropies and a local primordial non-Gaussianity signal within reach of future large-scale-structure surveys.

arXiv comment12 pages, 1 figure