Conformal Invariance, Dynamical Dark Energy and the CMB

Abstract

General Relativity receives quantum corrections relevant at cosmological distance scales from the conformal scalar degrees of freedom required by the trace anomaly of the quantum stress tensor in curved space. In the theory including the trace anomaly terms, the cosmological "constant" becomes dynamical and hence potentially dependent upon both space and time. The fluctuations of these anomaly scalars may also influence the spectrum and statistics of the Cosmic Microwave Background. Under the hypothesis that scale invariance should be promoted to full conformal invariance, an hypothesis supported by the exact equivalence of the conformal group of three dimensions with the de Sitter group SO(4,1), the form of the CMB bispectrum can be fixed, and the trispectrum constrained. The non-Gaussianities predicted by conformal invariance differ from those suggested by simple models of inflation.Comment: 8 pages, Latex2e, uses moriond.sty file. Talk given at "2010 Cosmology," March 13-20, 2010, La Thuile, Aosta, Ital