Enhancing non-Gaussianities by breaking local Lorentz invariance

TL;DR

Breaking local Lorentz invariance at tiny space-time scales during inflation can significantly enhance non-Gaussianities in primordial fluctuations, providing a new way to test such models beyond power spectrum constraints.

Contribution

This work explores how Lorentz invariance violation at small scales can increase non-Gaussian features in inflationary fluctuations, offering novel observational constraints.

Findings

Lorentz violation can amplify non-Gaussianities in primordial fluctuations.

Models with spatial symmetry-breaking operators predict larger non-Gaussian signals.

Enhanced non-Gaussianities can help constrain Lorentz-violating theories beyond power spectrum analysis.

Abstract

This talk briefly explains how the breaking of a Lorentz-invariant description of nature at tiny space-time intervals might affect the non-Gaussian character of the primordial fluctuations left by inflation. For example, a model that contains irrelevant operators that only preserve the spatial symmetries along constant-time surfaces can generate a larger non-Gaussian component in the pattern of primordial fluctuations than is ordinarily predicted by inflation. This property can be useful for constraining models that allow some Lorentz violation at short distances, beyond the constraints possible from the power spectrum alone.