Speaker
Description
The cosmological collider physics program aims at probing particle physics at energies as high as the inflationary Hubble scale, $H \le 10^{13}$ GeV, using precision measurements from CMB, large scale structure surveys, and 21-cm cosmology. Heavy particles produced during inflation can impart unique correlations in the density fluctuations across the sky, leading to non-gaussianity (NG) in the cosmological observables. This presents a unique opportunity for the “direct detection” of particles with masses as large as $H$. However, the strength of this signal drops exponentially due to a Boltzmann-like factor as masses exceed $H$. In this talk, I will discuss a mechanism that overcomes this suppression and broadens the scope of cosmological collider physics, focusing on the case of a massive complex scalar field. The mechanism allows us to harness large kinetic energy of the inflaton to produce particles with masses as large as $\sim 60H$. I will show that NG with $f_{\rm NL} \sim {\cal O}(0.01-10)$ can be obtained, and delineate a procedure to infer the mass of the heavy field from the signal.
| Are you are a member of the APS Division of Particles and Fields? | No |
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