Minimal cut-off vacuum state constraints from CMB bispectrum statistics

In this short note we translate the best available observational bounds on the CMB bispectrum amplitudes into constraints on a specific scale-invariant New Physics Hypersurface (NPH) model of vacuum state modifications, as first proposed by Danielsson, in general models of single-field inflation. As compared to the power spectrum the bispectrum constraints are less ambiguous and provide an interesting upper bound on the cut-off scale in general models of single-field inflation with a small speed of sound. This upper bound is incompatible with the power spectrum constraint for most of the parameter domain, leaving very little room for minimal cut-off vacuum state modifications in general single-field models with a small speed of sound.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Bispectrum signatures of a modified vacuum in single field inflation with a small speed of sound

Deviations from the Bunch-Davies vacuum during an inflationary period can leave a testable imprint on the higher-order correlations of the CMB and large scale structures in the Universe. The effect is particularly pronounced if the statistical non-Gaussianity is inherently large, such as in models of inflation with a small speed of sound, e.g. DBI. First reviewing the motivations for a modified vacuum, we calculate the non-Gaussianity for a general action with a small speed of sound. The shape of its bispectrum is found to most resemble the 'orthogonal' or 'local' templates depending on the phase of the Bogolyubov parameter. In particular, for DBI models of inflation the bispectrum can have a profound 'local' template feature, in contrast to previous results. Determining the projection into the observational templates allows us to derive constraints on the absolute value of the Bogolyubov parameter. In the small sound speed limit, the derived constraints are generally stronger than the existing constraint derived from the power spectrum. The bound on the absolute value of the Bogolyubov parameter ranges from the 10^-6 to the 10^-3 level for H/\Lambda_c = 10^-3, depending on the specific details of the model, the sound speed and the phase of the Bogolyubov parameter.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures, 2 appendices. New in this version: added references, fixed typos, modified sentences. Version submitted to JCA

CMB-S4 Science Book, First Edition

This book lays out the scientific goals to be addressed by the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment, CMB-S4, envisioned to consist of dedicated telescopes at the South Pole, the high Chilean Atacama plateau and possibly a northern hemisphere site, all equipped with new superconducting cameras. CMB-S4 will dramatically advance cosmological studies by crossing critical thresholds in the search for the B-mode polarization signature of primordial gravitational waves, in the determination of the number and masses of the neutrinos, in the search for evidence of new light relics, in constraining the nature of dark energy, and in testing general relativity on large scales

Observing the Evolution of the Universe

How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address everything from the physics of the birth of the universe to the history of star formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass. We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in the planning stages.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Full list of 177 author available at http://cmbpol.uchicago.ed

CMB-S4 Science Book, First Edition

This book lays out the scientific goals to be addressed by the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment, CMB-S4, envisioned to consist of dedicated telescopes at the South Pole, the high Chilean Atacama plateau and possibly a northern hemisphere site, all equipped with new superconducting cameras. CMB-S4 will dramatically advance cosmological studies by crossing critical thresholds in the search for the B-mode polarization signature of primordial gravitational waves, in the determination of the number and masses of the neutrinos, in the search for evidence of new light relics, in constraining the nature of dark energy, and in testing general relativity on large scales

WMAP7 constraints on oscillations in the primordial power spectrum

We use the 7-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP7) data to place constraints on oscillations supplementing an almost scale-invariant primordial power spectrum. Such oscillations are predicted by a variety of models, some of which amount to assuming that there is some non-trivial choice of the vacuum state at the onset of inflation. In this paper, we will explore data-driven constraints on two distinct models of initial state modifications. In both models, the frequency, phase and amplitude are degrees of freedom of the theory for which the theoretical bounds are rather weak: both the amplitude and frequency have allowed values ranging over several orders of magnitude. This requires many computationally expensive evaluations of the model cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectra and their goodness of fit, even in a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), normally the most efficient fitting method for such a problem. To search more efficiently, we first run a densely-spaced grid, with only three varying parameters: the frequency, the amplitude and the baryon density. We obtain the optimal frequency and run an MCMC at the best-fitting frequency, randomly varying all other relevant parameters. To reduce the computational time of each power spectrum computation, we adjust both comoving momentum integration and spline interpolation (in l) as a function of frequency and amplitude of the primordial power spectrum. Applying this to the WMAP7 data allows us to improve existing constraints on the presence of oscillations. We confirm earlier findings that certain frequencies can improve the fitting over a model without oscillations. For those frequencies we compute the posterior probability, allowing us to put some constraints on the primordial parameter space of both models