1205.5275 (Xian Gao et al.)

Influence of heavy modes on perturbations in multiple field inflation    [PDF]

Xian Gao, David Langlois, Shuntaro Mizuno

We investigate linear cosmological perturbations in multiple field inflationary models where some of the directions are light while others are heavy (with respect to the Hubble parameter). By integrating out the massive degrees of freedom, we determine the multi-dimensional effective theory for the light degrees of freedom and give explicitly the propagation matrix that replaces the effective sound speed of the one-dimensional case. We then examine in detail the consequences of a sudden turn along the inflationary trajectory, in particular the possible breakdown of the low energy effective theory in case the heavy modes are excited. Resorting to a new basis in field space, instead of the usual adiabatic/entropic basis, we study the evolution of the perturbations during the turn, both analytically and numerically. We identify two types of features in the resulting power spectrum: oscillations periodic in the wavenumber $k$, which are due to the light modes, and can be described by the effective theory, on which are superimposed oscillations periodic in $\ln k$, due to the excited heavy modes and which cannot be accounted for by the effective theory.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.5275