Probing String Theory with Modulated Cosmological Fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper explores how light fields during inflation can cause small inhomogeneities in coupling constants, leading to observable modulated fluctuations in the early universe's relics and curvature, offering a novel probe of string theory.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism where modulated coupling constants generate large-scale cosmological fluctuations, providing a new way to test string theory predictions through cosmological observations.

Findings

Inhomogeneities in coupling constants can produce observable large-scale fluctuations.

Modulated preheating can generate pure curvature fluctuations even without inflaton fluctuations.

Early universe inhomogeneities could leave imprints detectable in relic species and cosmic structures.

Abstract

Superstring theory, models with extra dimensions and other SUSY models generically predict that the coupling constants are in fact vacuum expectation values of fields like the dilaton, moduli etc. Assuming some of these fields are light during inflation, we get generation of small classical inhomogeneities in these fields from inflation. Consequently, coupling constants inherit small inhomogeneities at scales much larger than the causal horizon in the early universe. After the moduli get pinned down to their minima, the spatial variations of coupling constants in the late time universe will be erased. However, inhomogeneities in coupling constants in the very early universe would generate modulated large scale fluctuations in all relic species that are produced due to interactions and freezing out. Moreover (p)reheating of the inflaton field results in modulated curvature fluctuations. Even if the standard inflaton fluctuations are suppressed, in this picture we may have pure curvature cosmological fluctuations entirely generated by the modulated spatial variations of the coupling constants during preheating.