Bispectrum in single-field inflation beyond slow-roll

Peter Adshead, Wayne Hu, Vinícius Miranda

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We develop an integral form for the bispectrum in general single-field inflation whose domain of validity includes models of inflation where the background evolution is not constrained to be slowly varying everywhere. Our integral form preserves the squeezed-limit consistency relation, allows for fast evaluation of the bispectrum for all triangle configurations expediting the efficient comparison of slow-roll violating models with data, and provides complete and compact slow-roll expressions correct to first order in slow-roll parameters. Motivated by the recent Planck results, we consider as an example a sharp step in the warped-brane tension of Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation and provide analytic solutions for the peak of the resulting bispectrum. For the step in the warp that reproduces the oscillations in the power spectrum favored by the Planck data, the corresponding equilateral bispectrum is both extremely large and highly scale dependent. The bispectrum serves as a means of distinguishing such a model from alternative scenarios that generate otherwise indistinguishable power spectra, such as a step in the potential in canonical single-field inflation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number023507
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume88
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 8 2013
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Bispectrum in single-field inflation beyond slow-roll'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this