Evidence for Planck-scale resonant particle production during inflation from the CMB power spectrum

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background from both the Planck and WMAP data exhibits a slight dip for multipoles in the range of l = 10−30. We show that such a dip could be the result of the resonant creation of massive particles that couple to the inflaton field. For our best-fit models, the epoch of resonant particle creation reenters the horizon at a wave number of k∗ ∼ 0.0011 ± 0.0004 (h Mpc1). The amplitude and location of this feature corresponds to the creation of a number of degenerate fermion species of mass ∼ (8 − 11)/λ3/2 mpl during inflation where λ ∼ (1.0 ± 0.5)N−2/5 is the coupling constant between the inflaton field and the created fermion species, while N is the number of degenerate species. Although the evidence is of marginal statistical significance, this could constitute new observational hints of unexplored physics beyond the Planck scale.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories, Proceedings
EditorsMassimo Bianchi, Robert T Jantzen, Remo Ruffini, Remo Ruffini
PublisherWorld Scientific Publishing Co. Pte Ltd
Pages4256-4261
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9789813226593
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes
Event14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories - Rome, Italy
Duration: 12 Jul 201518 Jul 2015

Publication series

Name14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories, Proceedings

Conference

Conference14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityRome
Period12/07/1518/07/15

Keywords

  • Cosmic microwave background
  • Inflation
  • String theory

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