Signatures of very high energy physics in the squeezed limit of the bispectrum (violation of Maldacena's condition)

Abstract

We investigate the signatures in the squeezed limit of the primordial scalar bispectrum due to modifications of the standard theory at high energy. In particular, we consider the cases of modified dispersion relations and/or modified initial quantum state (both in the Boundary Effective Field Theory and in the New Physics Hyper-Surface formulations). Using the in-in formalism we study in details the squeezed limit of the contributions to the bispectrum from all possible cubic couplings in the effective theory of single-field inflation. We find general features such as enhancements and/or non-local shape of the non-Gaussianities, which are relevant, for example, for measurements of the halo bias and which distinguish these scenarios from the standard one (with Bunch-Davies vacuum as initial state and standard kinetic terms). We find that the signatures change according to the magnitude of the scale of new physics, and therefore several pieces of information regarding high energy physics could be obtained in case of detection of these signals, especially bounds on the scales of new physics.Comment: 37 pages plus bibliography, version matching the one accepted for publication by JCAP. Increased pedagogical comments, improved presentation and text, added reference