Induced superhorizon tensor perturbations from anisotropic non-Gaussianity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how anisotropic non-Gaussianity during inflation can induce superhorizon tensor perturbations, potentially affecting CMB observations and providing insights into tiny scale physics.

Contribution

It introduces a new mechanism for superhorizon tensor mode generation via anisotropic non-Gaussianity, analyzing its observational implications and specific models.

Findings

Induced tensor spectrum is nearly scale-invariant.

CMB measurements can probe tiny scale physics.

Secondary tensor modes may contaminate primordial signals.

Abstract

We study cosmological tensor perturbations induced by second-order scalar perturbations in the presence of anisotropic non-Gaussianity. This class of induced tensor modes arises on superhorizon scales through the intrinsic quadrupole coupling between long modes and short modes. Scalar perturbations on all scales from the inflationary Hubble radius to the Silk damping scale at recombination contribute to the induced tensor powerspectrum at the cosmic microwave background (CMB) scale. In addition, the induced tensor spectrum becomes almost scale-invariant. The former property suggests that measurements of the CMB offer a test of tiny scale physics. However, the latter implies the secondary effect may contaminate the primordial tensor spectrum, which tells us the energy scale of inflation. We derive the induced tensor modes originated from two concrete examples of anisotropic non-Gaussianity; statistically anisotropic scalar non-Gaussianity and scalar-scalar-tensor non-Gaussianity, and discuss observational consequences of extremely short scale physics. Also, we comment on various possibilities of enhancing the induced spectrum with nonstandard early Universe physics.