DOE OSTI2015
We examine the effect induced on cosmological correlators by the simultaneous breaking of parity and of statistical isotropy. As an example of this, we compute the scalar-scalar, scalar-tensor, tensor-tensor and scalar-scalar-scalar cosmological correlators in presence of the coupling L = f(φ) ( − 1/4 F{sup 2} + γ/4 F ∼F ) between the inflaton φ and a vector field with vacuum expectation value A. For a suitably chosen function f, the energy in the vector field ρ{sub A} does not decay during inflation. This results in nearly scale-invariant signatures of broken statistical isotropy and parity. Specifically, we find that the scalar-scalar correlator of primordial curvature perturbations includes a quadrupolar anisotropy, P{sub ζ}(k) = P(k)[1+g{sub *}( k-circumflex ⋅Â){sup 2}], and a (angle-averaged) scalar bispectrum that is a linear combination of the first 3 Legendre polynomials, B{sub ζ}(k{sub 1}, k{sub 2}, k{sub 3}) = ∑{sub L} c{sub L} P{sub L} ( k-circumflex {sub 1} ⋅ k-circumflex {sub 2}) P(k{sub 1}) P(k{sub 2}) + 2 perms , with c{sub 0}:c{sub 1}:c{sub 2}=2-3:1 (c{sub 1}≠0 is a consequence of parity violation, corresponding to the constant 0γ ≠ ). The latter is one of the main results of this paper, which provides for the first time a clear example of an inflationary model where a non-negligible c{sub 1} contribution to the bispectrum is generated. The scalar-tensor and tensor-tensor correlators induce characteristic signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature anisotropies (T) and polarization (E/B modes); namely, non-diagonal contributions to (a{sub ℓ1m1}a{sup *}{sub ℓ2m2}), with |ℓ{sub 1} − ℓ{sub 2}| = 1 in TT, TE, EE and BB, and |ℓ{sub 1} − ℓ{sub 2}| = 2 in TB and EB. The latest CMB bounds on the scalar observables (g{sub *}, c{sub 0}, c{sub 1} and c{sub 2}), translate into the upper limit ρ{sub A} / ρ{sub φ} ∼< 10{sup −9} at 0γ=. We find that the upper limit on the vector energy density becomes much more stringent as γ grows.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗