TY - JOUR
T1 - Heavy fields, reduced speeds of sound, and decoupling during inflation
AU - Achúcarro, Ana
AU - Atal, Vicente
AU - Céspedes, Sebastián
AU - Gong, Jinn Ouk
AU - Palma, Gonzalo A.
AU - Patil, Subodh P.
PY - 2012/12/3
Y1 - 2012/12/3
N2 - We discuss and clarify the validity of effective single-field theories of inflation obtained by integrating out heavy degrees of freedom in the regime where adiabatic perturbations propagate with a suppressed speed of sound. We show by construction that it is indeed possible to have inflationary backgrounds where the speed of sound remains suppressed and uninterrupted slow-roll persists for long enough. In this class of models, heavy fields influence the evolution of adiabatic modes in a manner that is consistent with decoupling of physical low- and high-energy degrees of freedom. We emphasize the distinction between the effective masses of the isocurvature modes and the eigenfrequencies of the propagating high-energy modes. Crucially, we find that the mass gap that defines the high-frequency modes increases with the strength of the turn, even as the naively heavy (isocurvature) and light (curvature) modes become more strongly coupled. Adiabaticity is preserved throughout, and the derived effective field theory remains in the weakly coupled regime, satisfying all current observational constraints on the resulting primordial power spectrum. In addition, these models allow for an observably large equilateral non-Gaussianity.
AB - We discuss and clarify the validity of effective single-field theories of inflation obtained by integrating out heavy degrees of freedom in the regime where adiabatic perturbations propagate with a suppressed speed of sound. We show by construction that it is indeed possible to have inflationary backgrounds where the speed of sound remains suppressed and uninterrupted slow-roll persists for long enough. In this class of models, heavy fields influence the evolution of adiabatic modes in a manner that is consistent with decoupling of physical low- and high-energy degrees of freedom. We emphasize the distinction between the effective masses of the isocurvature modes and the eigenfrequencies of the propagating high-energy modes. Crucially, we find that the mass gap that defines the high-frequency modes increases with the strength of the turn, even as the naively heavy (isocurvature) and light (curvature) modes become more strongly coupled. Adiabaticity is preserved throughout, and the derived effective field theory remains in the weakly coupled regime, satisfying all current observational constraints on the resulting primordial power spectrum. In addition, these models allow for an observably large equilateral non-Gaussianity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84870608165&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.86.121301
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.86.121301
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84870608165
SN - 1550-7998
VL - 86
JO - Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
JF - Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
IS - 12
M1 - 121301
ER -