Power spectrum in stochastic inflation

TL;DR

This paper develops a method to compute the power spectrum of curvature perturbations in stochastic inflation, linking quantum diffusion effects at small scales to observable large-scale CMB fluctuations, enabling constraints on inflationary models.

Contribution

It introduces a stochastic-$ abla N$ formalism that connects first crossing time distributions with field values at horizon crossing, enhancing the understanding of inflationary perturbations.

Findings

Quantum diffusion at small scales influences large-scale perturbations.

CMB measurements can constrain inflationary potentials up to the end of inflation.

Distortion of classical relationships affects the power spectrum.

Abstract

We compute the power spectrum of curvature perturbations in stochastic inflation. This combines the distribution of first crossing times through the end-of-inflation surface, which has been previously studied, with the distribution of the fields value at the time when a given scale crosses out the Hubble radius during inflation, which we show how to compute. This allows the stochastic-$\delta N$ formalism to make concrete contact with observations. As an application, we study how quantum diffusion at small scales (arising e.g. in models leading to primordial black holes) affects the large-scale perturbations observed in the cosmic microwave background. We find that even if those sets of scales are well separated, large effects can arise from the distortion of the classical relationship between field values and wavenumbers brought about by quantum diffusion near the end of inflation. This shows that cosmic microwave background measurements can set explicit constraints on the entire inflationary potential down to the end of inflation.