Bispectrum from open inflation

TL;DR

This paper calculates the bispectrum of primordial curvature perturbations in open inflation, revealing how quantum tunneling influences initial states and affects non-Gaussian features, especially in the squeezed and folded configurations.

Contribution

It provides a self-consistent computation of the bispectrum considering tunneling-induced initial state modifications in open inflation models.

Findings

Enhanced bispectrum in squeezed configurations consistent with previous studies

Folded limit bispectrum remains finite and is also enhanced

Suppression of effects for wavelengths smaller than the curvature radius

Abstract

We calculate the bispectrum of primordial curvature perturbations, \zeta, generated during "open inflation." Inflation occurs inside a bubble nucleated via quantum tunneling from the background false vacuum state. Our universe lives inside the bubble, which can be described as a Friedman-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) universe with negative spatial curvature, undergoing slow-roll inflation. We pay special attention to the issue of an initial state for quantum fluctuations. A "vacuum state" defined by a positive-frequency mode in de Sitter space charted by open coordinates is different from the Euclidean vacuum (which is equivalent to the so-called "Bunch-Davies vacuum"). Quantum tunneling then modifies the initial state away from the original Euclidean vacuum. While most of the previous study on modifications of the initial quantum state introduces, by hand, an initial time at which the quantum state is modified as well as the form of the modification, an effective initial time naturally emerges and the form is fixed by quantum tunneling in open inflation models. Therefore, open inflation enables a self-consistent computation of the effect of a modified initial state on the bispectrum. We find a term which goes as <\zeta_{k_1} \zeta_{k_2} \zeta_{k_3}> \propto 1/k_1^2k_3^4 in the so-called squeezed configurations, k_3\ll k_1\approx k_2, in agreement with the previous study. The bispectrum in the exact folded limit, e.g., k_1=k_2+k_3, is also enhanced and remains finite. However, these terms are exponentially suppressed when the wavelength of \zeta is smaller than the curvature radius of the universe. The leading-order bispectrum is equal to the usual one from single-field slow-roll inflation; the terms specific for open inflation arise only in the sub-leading order when the wavelength of \zeta is smaller than the curvature radius.