Particle production during inflation: Observational constraints and signatures

Observational constraints on particle production during inflation

Resonant particle production, along with many other physical processes which change the effective equation of state (EOS) during inflation, introduces a feature in the primordial power spectrum which in many models has a step-like shape. We calculate observational constraints on resonant particle production, parametrized in the form of an effective step height, Neff and location in k-space, kbr...

Observational constraints on cosmic string production during brane inflation

Overall, brane inflation is compatible with the recent analysis of the Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe ~WMAP! data. Here we explore the constraints of WMAP and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey ~2dFGRS! data on the various brane inflationary scenarios. Brane inflation naturally ends with the production of cosmic strings, which may provide a way to distinguish these models observationally. We ...

Inflation Models, Spectral Index and Observational Constraints

We have evaluated the observational constraints on the spectral index n, in the context of a ΛCDM model. For n scale-independent, as predicted by most models of inflation, present data require n ≃ 1.0 ± 0.1 at the 2-σ level. We have also studied the two-parameter scale-dependent spectral index, predicted by running-mass inflation models. Present data allow significant variation of n in this cas...

Observational Constraints on Non-Canonical Inflation

Observational Signatures and Non-Gaussianities of General Single Field Inflation

We perform a general study of primordial scalar non-Gaussianities in single field inflationary models. We consider models where the inflaton Lagrangian is an arbitrary function of the scalar field and its first derivative, and the sound speed is arbitrary. We find that under reasonable assumptions, the non-Gaussianity is completely determined by 5 parameters. In special limits of the parameter ...