We investigate the degeneracy of the isocurvature perturbations and the primordial gravitational waves, by using recent observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) reported by Planck and BICEP2 collaborations. We show that the tension in the bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ between Planck and BICEP2 can be resolved by introducing the anti-correlated isocurvature perturbations. Quantitatively, we find that with the anti-correlated isocurvature perturbations the constraints on $r$ from Planck alone and BICEP2 results can be consistent at 68 % C.L.
Recent measurements by the {\it Planck} experiment of the power spectrum of temperature anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) reveal a deficit of power in low multipoles compared to the predictions from best-fit $Λ$CDM cosmology. The low-$\ell$ anomaly may be explained by the presence of primordial isocurvature perturbations in addition to the usual adiabatic spectrum, and hence may provide the first robust evidence that early-universe inflation involved more than one scalar field. In this paper we explore the production of isocurvature perturbations in nonminimally c…
The recent Cosmic Microwave Background data from the Planck satellite experiment, when combined with HST determinations of the Hubble constant, are compatible with a larger, non-standard, number of relativistic degrees of freedom at recombination, parametrized by the neutrino effective number $N_{eff}$. In the curvaton scenario, a larger value for $N_{eff}$ could arise from a non-zero neutrino chemical potential connected to residual neutrino isocurvature density (NID) perturbations after the decay of the curvaton field, parametrized by the amplitude $α^{NID}$. Here we present new constraints …
Constraints on inflationary scenarios and isocurvature perturbations have excluded the simplest and most generic models of dark matter based on QCD axions. Considering non-minimal kinetic couplings of scalar fields to gravity substantially changes this picture. The axion can account for the observed dark matter density avoiding the overproduction of isocurvature fluctuations. Finally, we show that assuming the same non-minimal kinetic coupling to the axion (dark matter) and to the standard model Higgs boson (inflaton) provides a minimal picture of early time cosmology.
We study the inflation scenarios, in the framework of superstring theory, where the inflaton is an axion producing the adiabatic curvature perturbations while there exists another light axion producing the isocurvature perturbations. We discuss how the non-trivial couplings among string axions can generically arise, and calculate the consequent cross-correlations between the adiabatic and isocurvature modes through concrete examples. Based on the Planck analysis on the generally correlated isocurvature perturbations, we show that there is a preference for the existence of the correlated isocur…
Planck isocurvature constraint on primordial black holes lighter than a kiloton
School of Physics, Korea Institute for Advanced Study（韩国高等科学研究院物理学院）；Department of Science Education, Ewha Womans University（梨花女子大学科学教育系）；Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics（亚太理论物理中心）；Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学天文学与天体物理学系及引力与宇宙研究所）；Cosmology, Gravity and Astroparticle Physics Group, Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe, Institute for Basic Science（基础科学研究院宇宙理论物理中心宇宙学、引力和高能粒子物理组）；Department of Science Education, Gwangju National University of Education（光州国立教育大学科学教育系）；Department of Physics Education & Research Institute of Natural Science, Gyeongsang National University（庆尚国立大学物理教育系及自然科学研究所）
We study one-loop corrections to the two-point correlation function of tensor perturbations in primordial cosmology induced by massless spectator matter fields. Using the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism in cosmological perturbation theory, we employ dimensional regularization and cutoff regularization to study the finite quantum corrections at one-loop arising from isocurvature fields of the massless scalar, fermion and abelian gauge field which are freely propagating on the FRW spacetime. For all cases, we find a logarithmic running of the form $\frac{C}{q^3} \, \frac{H^4}{M^4_p} \log \left( \fra…
We investigate new shapes of local primordial non-Gaussianities in the CMB. Allowing for a primordial isocurvature mode along with the main adiabatic one, the angular bispectrum is in general a superposition of six distinct shapes: the usual adiabatic term, a purely isocurvature component and four additional components that arise from correlations between the adiabatic and isocurvature modes. We present a class of early Universe models in which various hierarchies between these six components can be obtained, while satisfying the present upper bound on the isocurvature fraction in the power sp…
In the standard inflationary scenario, primordial perturbations are adiabatic. The amplitudes of most types of isocurvature perturbations are generally constrained by current data to be small. If, however, there is a baryon-density perturbation that is compensated by a dark-matter perturbation in such a way that the total matter density is unperturbed, then this compensated isocurvature perturbation (CIP) has no observable consequence in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at linear order in the CIP amplitude. Here we search for the effects of CIPs on CMB power spectra to quadratic order in …
We perform a joint analysis of the power spectrum and the bispectrum of the CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies to improve the constraints on isocurvature modes. We construct joint likelihoods, both for the existing Planck data, and to make forecasts for the future LiteBIRD and CMB-S4 experiments. We assume a general two-field inflation model with five free parameters, leading to one isocurvature mode (which can be CDM density, neutrino density or neutrino velocity) arbitrarily correlated with the adiabatic mode. We theoretically assess in which cases (of detecting and/or fixing para…
We constrain cosmological models where the primordial perturbations have both an adiabatic and a (possibly correlated) cold dark matter (CDM) or baryon isocurvature component. We use both a phenomenological approach, where the primordial power spectra are parametrized with amplitudes and spectral indices, and a slow-roll two-field inflation approach where slow-roll parameters are used as primary parameters. In the phenomenological case, with CMB data, the upper limit to the CDM isocurvature fraction is α<6.4% at k=0.002Mpc^{-1} and 15.4% at k=0.01Mpc^{-1}. The median 95% range for the non-adia…
Compensated isocurvature perturbations (CIP), where the baryon and cold dark matter perturbations cancel, do not cause total matter isocurvature perturbation. Consequently, at the linear order in the baryon density contrast $Δ$, CIP is not detectable by the CMB power spectra. At the second order CIP smoothes the power spectra in a similar manner as lensing, causing a degeneracy between the CIP variance $Δ^2_{rms}=<Δ^2>$ and lensing parameter $A_L$. We show that the CMB lensing data breaks this degeneracy. Nested sampling of the LCDM+CIP(+$A_L$) model, the Planck 2015 temperature, polarization,…
If inflation scale is high, light scalars acquire large quantum fluctuations during inflation.If sufficiently long-lived, they will give rise to CDM isocurvature perturbations, which are highly constrained by the Planck data. Focusing on string axions as such light scalars, we show that thermal inflation can provide a sufficiently large entropy production to dilute the CDM isocurvature perturbations. Importantly, efficient dilution is possible for the string axions, because effectively no secondary coherent oscillations are induced at the end of thermal inflation, in contrast to the moduli fie…
The Universe's initial conditions, in particular baryon and cold dark matter (CDM) isocurvature perturbations, are poorly constrained on sub-Mpc scales. In this paper, we develop a new formalism to compute the effect of small-scale baryon perturbations on the mean free-electron abundance, thus on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. Our framework can accommodate perturbations with arbitrary time and scale dependence. We apply this formalism to four different combinations of baryon and CDM isocurvature modes, and use Planck CMB-anisotropy data to probe their initial amplitude. We fin…
The superhorizon (iso)curvature perturbations are conserved if the following conditions are satisfied: (i) (each) non adiabatic pressure perturbation is zero, (ii) the gradient terms are ignored, that is, at the leading order of the gradient expansion (iii) (each) total energy momentum tensor is conserved. We consider the case with the violation of the last two requirements and discuss the generation of secondary isocurvature perturbations during the late time universe. Second order gradient terms are not necessarily ignored even if we are interested in the long wavelength modes because of the…
We show that if a spectator linear isocurvature dark matter field degree of freedom has a constant mass through its entire evolution history, the maximum measurable isocurvature spectral index that is consistent with the current tensor-to-scalar ratio bound is about 2.4, even if experiments can be sensitive to a $10^{-6}$ contamination of the predominantly adiabatic power spectrum with an isocurvature power spectrum at the shortest observable length scales. Hence, any foreseeable future measurement of a blue isocurvature spectral index larger than about 2.4 may provide nontrivial evidence for …
We calculate the power spectrum and hemispherical asymmetry of isocurvature and curvaton perturbations due to a complex field Φwhich is evolving along the tachyonic part of its potential. Using a semi-classical evolution of initially sub-horizon quantum fluctuations, we compute the power spectrum, mean field and hemispherical asymmetry as a function of the number of e-foldings of tachyonic growth ΔN and the tachyonic mass term cH^2. We find that a large hemispherical asymmetry due to the modulation of |Φ| can easily be generated via the spatial modulation of |Φ| across the horizon, with Delta …
CMB Constraints on Pre-Inflationary Axion Dark Matter Isocurvature
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics（哈佛-史密森天体物理中心）；Brown University（布朗大学）；CERN（欧洲核子研究组织）；Nanjing Normal University（南京师范大学）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）
The axion causes two serious cosmological problems, domain wall and isocurvature perturbation problems. Linde pointed that the isocurvature perturbations are suppressed when the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) scalar field takes a large value $\sim M_{\text{pl}}$ (Planck scale) during inflation. In this case, however, the PQ field with large amplitude starts to oscillate after inflation and large fluctuations of the PQ field are produced through parametric resonance, which leads to the formation of domain walls. We consider a supersymmetric axion model and examine whether domain walls are formed by using la…
Multifield models of inflation with nonminimal couplings are in excellent agreement with the recent results from {\it Planck}. Across a broad range of couplings and initial conditions, such models evolve along an effectively single-field attractor solution and predict values of the primordial spectral index and its running, the tensor-to-scalar ratio, and non-Gaussianities squarely in the observationally most-favored region. Such models also can amplify isocurvature perturbations, which could account for the low power recently observed in the CMB power spectrum at low multipoles. Future measur…
In Higgs-otic inflation a complex neutral scalar combination of the $h^0$ and $H^0$ MSSM Higgs fields plays the role of inflaton in a chaotic fashion. The potential is protected from large trans-Planckian corrections at large inflaton if the system is embedded in string theory so that the Higgs fields parametrize a D-brane position. The inflaton potential is then given by a DBI+CS D-brane action yielding an approximate linear behaviour at large field. The inflaton scalar potential is a 2-field model with specific non-canonical kinetic terms. Previous computations of the cosmological parameters…
Non-linear effects in the early Universe generate non-zero bispectra of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization, even in the absence of primordial non-Gaussianity. In this paper, we compute the contributions from isocurvature modes to the CMB bispectra using a modified version of the second-order Boltzmann solver SONG. We investigate the ability of current and future CMB experiments to constrain these modes with observations of the bispectrum. Our results show that the enhancement due to single isocurvature modes mixed with the adiabatic mode is negligible for the pa…
In the curvaton scenario, residual isocurvature perturbations can be imprinted in the cosmic neutrino component after the decay of the curvaton field, implying in turn a non-zero chemical potential in the neutrino distribution. We study the constraints that future experiments like Planck, SPIDER or CMBPol will be able to put on the amplitude of isocurvature perturbations in the neutrino component. We express our results in terms of the square root γof the non-adiabaticity parameter αand of the extra relativistic degrees of freedom ΔN_eff. Assuming a fiducial model with purely adiabatic fluctua…
We present a new isocurvature mode present in scalar-tensor theories of gravity that corresponds to a regular growing solution in which the energy of the relativistic degrees of freedom and the scalar field that regulates the gravitational strength compensate during the radiation dominated epoch on scales much larger than the Hubble radius. We study this isocurvature mode and its impact on anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background for the simplest scalar-tensor theory, i.e. the extended Jordan-Brans-Dicke gravity, in which the scalar field also drives the acceleration of the Universe. We…
Dark radiation (DR) appears as a new physics candidate in various scenarios beyond the Standard Model. While it is often assumed that perturbations in DR are adiabatic, they can easily have an isocurvature component if more than one field was present during inflation, and whose decay products did not all thermalize with each other. By implementing the appropriate isocurvature initial conditions (IC), we derive the constraints on both uncorrelated and correlated DR density isocurvature perturbations from the full Planck 2018 data alone, and also in combination with other cosmological data sets.…
If low-energy SUSY exists, LHC data favors a high mass scale for scalar superpartners (above a TeV), while sfermions and the dark matter can be parametrically lighter -- leading to a so-called split-spectrum. When combining this fact with the motivation from fundamental theory for shift-symmetric scalars (moduli) prior to SUSY breaking, this leads to a non-thermal history for the early universe. Such a history implies different expectations for the microscopic properties of dark matter, as well as the possibility of dark radiation and a cosmic axion background. In this paper we examine how cor…
We calculate the CMB $μ$-distortion and the angular power spectrum of its cross-correlation with the temperature anisotropy in the presence of the non-Gaussian neutrino isocurvature density (NID) mode. While the pure Gaussian NID perturbations give merely subdominant contribution to $<μ>$ and vanishing $< μT>$, the latter quantity can be large enough to be detected in the future when the NID perturbations $\mathcal S(\mathbf x)$ are proportional to the square of a Gaussian field $g(\mathbf x)$, i.e. $\mathcal S({\mathbf x})\propto g^2({\mathbf x})$. In particular, large $< μT>$ can be realized…
We forecast how current ({\planck}) and future ({\prism}) cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments constrain the adiabatic mode and its admixtures with primordial isocurvature modes, using measurements of the reconstructed CMB lensing potential and lensing-induced CMB B-mode polarization anisotropies in combination with the CMB temperature and E-mode polarization anisotropies. We first study the characteristic features of the CMB temperature, polarization and lensing spectra for adiabatic and isocurvature modes. We then consider how lensing-induced B-mode polarization and lensing potentia…
Small fractions of isocurvature perturbations correlated with the dominant adiabatic mode are shown to be a significant primordial systematic for future Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) surveys, distorting the standard ruler distance by broadening and shifting the peak in the galaxy correlation function. Untreated this systematic leads to biases that can exceed $10σ$ in the dark energy parameters even for Planck-level isocurvature constraints. Accounting for the isocurvature modes corrects for this bias but degrades the dark energy figure of merit by at least 50\%. The BAO data in turn provid…
Effects of Poisson Isocurvature Perturbations on Induced Gravitational Waves
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）；School of Fundamental Physics and Mathematical Sciences, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学杭州高等研究院基础科学与数学学院）
We consider cosmological parameters estimation in the presence of a non-zero isocurvature contribution in the primordial perturbations. A previous analysis showed that even a tiny amount of isocurvature perturbation, if not accounted for, could affect standard rulers calibration from Cosmic Microwave Background observations such as those provided by the Planck mission, affect Baryon Acoustic Oscillations interpretation and introduce biases in the recovered dark energy properties that are larger than forecasted statistical errors from future surveys. Extending on this work, here we adopt a gene…
We study the extent to which one can distinguish primordial non--Gaussianity (NG) arising from adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations. We make a joint analysis of different NG models based on various inflationary scenarios: local-type and equilateral-type NG from adiabatic perturbations and local-type and quadratic-type NG from isocurvature perturbations together with a foreground contamination by point sources. We separate the Fisher information of the bispectrum of CMB temperature and polarization maps by l for the skew spectrum estimator introduced by Munshi & Heavens (2009) to study the …
A scale-invariant universe can have a period of accelerated expansion at early times: inflation. We use a frame-invariant approach to calculate inflationary observables in a scale invariant theory of gravity involving two scalar fields - the spectral indices, the tensor to scalar ratio, the level of isocurvature modes and non-Gaussianity. We show that scale symmetry leads to an exact cancellation of isocurvature modes and that, in the scale-symmetry broken phase, this theory is well described by a single scalar field theory. We find the predictions of this theory strongly compatible with curre…
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are black holes which may have formed very early on during the radiation dominated era in the early universe. We present here a method by which the large scale perturbations in the density of primordial black holes may be used to place tight constraints on non-gaussianity if PBHs account for dark matter (DM). The presence of local-type non-gaussianity is known to have a significant effect on the abundance of primordial black holes, and modal coupling from the observed CMB scale modes can significantly alter the number density of PBHs that form within different reg…
The recent detection by the BICEP2 collaboration of a high level of tensor modes has relevant implications which we briefly discuss in this short note. In particular, the large angle CMB B- mode polarisation seems to imply problematic super-Planckian excursions of the inflaton field. We provide some comments about this point and in particular we stress a natural resolution to it: given our current (and probably future) observational ignorance about the true source of the scalar perturbations, one should abandon the theoretical prejudice that they are associated to the inflaton fluctuations.
Measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies constrain isocurvature fluctuations between photons and non-relativistic particles to be sub-dominant to adiabatic fluctuations. Perturbations in the relative number densities of baryons and dark matter, however, are surprisingly poorly constrained. In fact, baryon-density perturbations of fairly large amplitude may exist if they are compensated by dark-matter perturbations, so that the total density remains unchanged. These compensated isocurvature perturbations (CIPs) leave no imprint on the CMB at observable scales, at linear or…
BICEP2 observations, interpreted most simply, suggest an era of inflation with energy densities of order ($10^{16}\, {\rm GeV})^4$, not far below the Planck density. However, models of TeV gravity with large extra dimensions might allow a very different interpretation involving much more modest energy scales. We discuss the viability of inflation in such models, and conclude that existing scenarios do not provide attractive alternatives to single field inflation in four dimensions. Because the detection of tensor modes strengthens our confidence that inflation occurred, it disfavors models of …
Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) surveys will be a leading method for addressing the dark energy challenge in the next decade. We explore in detail the effect of allowing for small amplitude admixtures of general isocurvature perturbations in addition to the dominant adiabatic mode. We find that non-adiabatic initial conditions leave the sound speed unchanged but instead excite different harmonics. These harmonics couple differently to Silk damping, altering the form and evolution of acoustic waves in the baryon-photon fluid prior to decoupling. This modifies not only the scale on which the s…
We study the effect of sudden transitions in the effective Planck mass during inflation on primordial power spectra. Specifically, we consider models in which this variation results from the non-minimal coupling of a Brans-Dicke type scalar field. We find that the scalar power spectra develop features at the scales corresponding to those leaving the horizon during the transition. In addition, we observe that the tensor perturbations are largely unaffected, so long as the variation of the Planck mass is below the percent level. Otherwise, the tensor power spectra exhibit damped oscillations ove…
The recent detection of B-modes by BICEP2 has non-trivial implications for axion dark matter implied by combining the tensor interpretation with isocurvature constraints from Planck. In this paper the measurement is taken as fact, and its implications considered, though further experimental verification is required. In the simplest inflation models $r=0.2$ implies $H_I=1.1\times 10^{14}\text{ GeV}$. If the axion decay constant $f_a<H_I/2π$ constraints on the dark matter (DM) abundance alone rule out the QCD axion as DM for $m_a \lesssim 52χ^{6/7}\,μ\text{eV}$ (where $χ>1$ accounts for theoreti…
The recent Planck results and future releases on the horizon present a key opportunity to address a fundamental question in inflationary cosmology of whether primordial density perturbations have a quantum or thermal origin, i.e. whether particle production may have significant effects during inflation. Warm inflation provides a natural arena to address this issue, with interactions between the scalar inflaton and other degrees of freedom leading to dissipative entropy production and associated thermal fluctuations. In this context, we present relations between CMB observables that can be dire…
In this paper we constrain the cosmological parameters, in particular the tilt of tensor power spectrum, by adopting Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (B2), Planck released in 2013 (P13) and Wilkinson Microwaves Anisotropy Probe 9-year Polarization (WP) data. We find that a blue tilted tensor power spectrum is preferred at more than $3σ$ confidence level if the data from B2 are assumed to be totally interpreted as the relic gravitational waves, but a scale invariant tensor power spectrum is consistent with the data once the polarized dust is taken into account. The recent…
Primordial isocurvature fluctuations between photons and either neutrinos or non-relativistic species such as baryons or dark matter are known to be sub-dominant to adiabatic fluctuations. Perturbations in the relative densities of baryons and dark matter (known as compensated isocurvature perturbations, or CIPs), however, are surprisingly poorly constrained. CIPs leave no imprint in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on observable scales, at least at linear order in their amplitude and zeroth order in the amplitude of adiabatic perturbations. It is thus not yet empirically known if baryons…
The newly released Planck CMB data place tight constraints on slow-roll inflationary models. Some of commonly discussed inflationary potentials are disfavored due mainly to the large tensor-to-scalar ratio. In this paper we show that these potentials may be in good agreement with the Planck data when the inflaton has a non-minimal coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet term. Moreover, such a coupling violates the consistency relation between the tensor spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio. If the tensor spectral index is allowed to vary freely, the Planck constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio a…
We explore inflationary trajectories within randomly-generated two-dimensional potentials, considered as a toy model of the string landscape. Both the background and perturbation equations are solved numerically, the latter using the two-field formalism of Peterson and Tegmark which fully incorporates the effect of isocurvature perturbations. Sufficient inflation is a rare event, occurring for only roughly one in $10^5$ potentials. For models generating sufficient inflation, we find that the majority of runs satisfy current constraints from WMAP. The scalar spectral index is less than 1 in all…
We have recently proposed that the Standard Model Higgs might be responsible for generating the cosmological perturbations of the universe by acting as an isocurvature mode during a de Sitter inflationary stage. In this paper we study the level of non-Gaussianity in the cosmological perturbations which are inevitably generated due to the non-linearities of the Standard Model Higgs potential. In particular, for the current central value of the top mass, we find that a future detection of non-Gaussianity would exclude the detection of tensor modes by the PLANCK satellite.
In this work, we examine cosmological constraints on models of composite inflation based on the slow-roll approximation by using the recent Planck measurement. We compare the spectral index of curvature perturbation (and its running) and the tensor-to-scalar ratio predicted by such models with Planck 2015 data. We find that the predictions of technicolor inflation are nicely consistent with the Planck analysis. Moreover, the predictions from the second model, glueball inflation, are in good agreement with the Planck data at $2σ$C.L. However, the final two models, super glueball inflation and o…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) places strong constraints on models of dark matter (DM) that deviate from standard cold DM (CDM), and on initial conditions beyond the scalar adiabatic mode. Here, the full \textit{Planck} data set (including temperature, $E$-mode polarisation, and lensing deflection) is used to test the possibility that some fraction of the DM is composed of ultralight axions (ULAs). This represents the first use of CMB lensing to test the ULA model. We find no evidence for a ULA component in the mass range $10^{-33}\leq m_a\leq 10^{-24}\text{ eV}$. We put percent-level c…
We systematically study the renormalizable three-term polynomial inflation in the supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric models. The supersymmetric inflaton potentials can be realized in supergravity theory, and only have two independent parameters. We show that the general renormalizable supergravity model is equivalent to one kind of our supersymmetric models. We find that the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio can be consistent with the Planck and BICEP2 results, but the running of spectral index is always out of the $2σ$ range. If we do not consider the BICEP2 experiment, these infla…
In this paper we provide an accurate bound on primordial gravitational waves, i.e. tensor-to-scalar ratio $(r)$ for a general class of single-field models of inflation where inflation occurs always below the Planck scale, and the field displacement during inflation remains sub-Planckian. If inflation has to make connection with the real particle physics framework then it must be explained within an effective field theory description where it can be trustable below the UV cut-off of the scale of gravity. We provide an analytical estimation and estimate the largest possible $r$, i.e. $r\leq 0.12…
We use CMB (WMAP and ACBAR), large scale structure (SDSS luminous red galaxies) and supernova (SNLS) data to constrain the possible contribution of CDM isocurvature modes to the primordial perturbation spectrum. We consider three different admixtures with adiabatic modes in a flat $Λ$CDM cosmology with no tensor modes: fixed correlations with a single spectral index; general correlations with a single spectral index; and general correlations with independent spectral indices for each mode. For fixed correlations, we verify the WMAP analysis for fully uncorrelated and anti-correlated modes, whi…
The observed baryon asymmetry, as well as potentially an asymmetry in the dark matter sector, can be produced through dissipative particle production during inflation. A distinctive feature of this mechanism is the generation of matter isocurvature perturbations that are fully (anti-)correlated with the dominant adiabatic curvature perturbations. We show that chaotic warm inflation models yield anti-correlated isocurvature modes that may partially or even completely screen the contribution of primordial gravity waves to the CMB temperature power spectrum. The tensor-to-scalar ratio inferred fr…
In this thesis, we show how the structure of the landscape potential of the primordial Universe may be probed through the primordial density perturbations responsible for the origin of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and the large-scale structure of our Universe. Isocurvature fields may have fluctuated across the barriers separating local minima of the landscape potential during inflation. We analyze how this process could have impacted the evolution of the primordial curvature perturbations. If the typical distance separating consecutive minima of the landscape potential and the …
When the different wavelengths of the scalar and tensor modes of the geometry are all assigned on the same space-like hypersurface the maximally amplified frequencies of the spectrum remain smaller than the Planck mass only if the duration of a stage of accelerated expansion and the corresponding tensor to scalar ratio are severely constrained. All the different wavelengths can be initialized on the same space-like hypersurface at the onset of inflation but this strategy and the related conclusions are plausible only for classical inhomogeneities. We argue that a whole class of potential const…
Compensated isocurvature perturbations (CIPs) are opposite spatial fluctuations in the baryon and dark matter density. They can be generated for example in the curvaton model in the early Universe but are difficult to observe because their gravitational imprint nearly cancels. We therefore propose a new measurement method by searching for a spatial modulation of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale that CIPs induce. We find that for a Euclid-like survey the sensitivity is marginally better than the WMAP cosmic microwave background (CMB) constraint, which exploits the CIP-induced modulat…
