CMB anisotropies and inflation from non-standard spinors

The apparent alignment of the cosmic microwave background multipoles on large scales challenges the standard cosmological model. Scalar field inflation is isotropic and cannot account for the observed alignment. We explore the imprints, a non-standard spinor driven inflation would leave on the cosmic microwave background anisotropies. We show it is natural to expect an anisotropic inflationary expansion of the Universe which has the effect of suppressing the low multipole amplitude of the primordial power spectrum, while at the same time to provide the usual inflationary features.     

Inflation,quantum fields,and CMB anisotropies

Inflationary cosmology has proved to be the most successful at predicting the properties of the anisotropies observed in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In this essay we show that quantum field renormalization significantly influences the generation of primordial perturbations and hence the expected measurable imprint of cosmological inflation on the CMB. However, the new predictions remain in agreement with observation, and in fact favor the simplest forms of inflation. In the near future, observations of the influence of gravitational waves from the early universe on the CMB will test our new predictions.     

CMB polarization as complementary information to anisotropies

The origin of CMB polarization is reviewed. Special emphasis is placed on the cosmological information encoded in it: the nature of primordial fluctuations, the connection with the inflation paradigm. Insights into more recent epochs are also discussed: early reionization and high redshift matter distribution from CMB lensing. To cite this article: J. Kaplan et al., C. R. Physique 4 (2003).     

Quantum fluctuations in low-dimensional easy-plane spin models

A self-consistent harmonic approximation is used to treat the low temperature limit of the one and two dimensional S=1 easy plane magnets. For the one dimensional (1D) model, we calculate the gap caused by the presence of an external magnetic field applied in the easy-plane. The quantum phase transition of the one-dimensional model at T=0 is also studied. For the two-dimensional case, the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition temperature as a function of a single-ion anisotropy term is calculated. The line ends at a quantum critical point, where the KT temperature goes to zero.     

Double inflation and the low CMB quadrupole

Recent released WMAP data show a low value of quadrupole in the CMB temperature fluctuations, which confirms the early observations by COBE. In this Letter we consider a model of two inflatons with different masses, , m₁>m₂ and study its effects on CMB of suppressing the primordial power spectrum P(k) at small k. Inflation is driven in this model firstly by the heavier inflaton φ₁, then the lighter field φ₂. But there is no interruption in between. We numerically calculate the scalar and tensor power spectra with mode by mode integrations, then fit the model to WMAP temperature correlations TT and the TE temperature-polarization spectra. Our results show that with m₁10¹⁴ GeV and m₂10¹³ GeV, this model solves the problems of flatness, etc. and the CMB quadrupole predicted can be much lower than the standard power-law ΛCDM model.     

CMB fluctuations and string compactification scales

We propose a mechanism for the generation of temperature fluctuations of cosmic microwave background. We consider a large number of fields, such as Kaluza-Klein modes and string excitations. Each field contributes to the gravitational potential by a small amount, but an observable level of temperature fluctuations is achieved by summing up the contribution of typically of order 10¹⁴ fields. Tensor fluctuations are hardly affected by these fields. Our mechanism is based on purely quantum effects of the fields which are classically at rest, and is different from the one in slow-roll inflation. Using the observed data, we find constraints on the parameters of this model, such as the size of the extra dimensions and the string scale. Our model predicts a particular pattern of non-gaussianity with a small magnitude.     

Non-standard primordial fluctuations and nongaussianity in string inflation

Inflationary scenarios in string theory often involve a large number of light scalar fields, whose presence can enrich the post-inflationary evolution of primordial fluctuations generated during the inflationary epoch. We provide a simple example of such post-inflationary processing within an explicit string-inflationary construction, using a Kähler modulus as the inflaton within the framework of LARGE Volume Type-IIB string flux compactifications. We argue that inflationary models within this broad category often have a selection of scalars that are light enough to be cosmologically relevant, whose contributions to the primordial fluctuation spectrum can compete with those generated in the standard way by the inflaton. These models consequently often predict nongaussianity at a level, \( {f_{\text{NL}}} \simeq \mathcal{O}\left( {10} \right) \), potentially observable by the Planck satellite, with a bi-spectrum maximized by triangles with squeezed shape in a string realization of the curvaton scenario. We argue that the observation of such a signal would robustly prefer string cosmologies such as these that predict a multi-field dynamics during the very early universe.     

Primordial fluctuations and non-Gaussianities in multifield Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation

We study Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation models with multiple scalar fields. We show that the adiabatic and entropy modes propagate with a common effective sound speed and are thus amplified at the sound horizon crossing. In the small sound speed limit, we find that the amplitude of the entropy modes is much higher than that of the adiabatic modes. We show that this could strongly affect the observable curvature power spectrum as well as the amplitude of non-Gaussianities, although their shape remains as in the single-field Dirac-Born-Infeld case.     

Quantum Gravity,Information Theory and the CMB

We review connections between the metric of spacetime and the quantum fluctuations of fields. We start with the finding that the spacetime metric can be expressed entirely in terms of the 2-point correlator of the fluctuations of quantum fields. We then discuss the open question whether the knowledge of only the spectra of the quantum fluctuations of fields also suffices to determine the spacetime metric. This question is of interest because spectra are geometric invariants and their quantization would, therefore, have the benefit of not requiring the modding out of diffeomorphisms. Further, we discuss the fact that spacetime at the Planck scale need not necessarily be either discrete or continuous. Instead, results from information theory show that spacetime may be simultaneously discrete and continuous in the same way that information can. Finally, we review the recent finding that a covariant natural ultraviolet cutoff at the Planck scale implies a signature in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) that may become observable.     

Metric fluctuations and their evolution during inflation

We discuss the evolution of the fluctuations in a symmetric -exponential potential which provides a power-law expansion during inflation using both the gauge-invariant field and the Sasaki-Mukhanov field.Received: 10 December 2003, Published online: 23 March 2004