New Probes of Initial State of Quantum Fluctuations During Inflation

APA

Komatsu, E. (2012). New Probes of Initial State of Quantum Fluctuations During Inflation. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. https://pirsa.org/12050002

MLA

Komatsu, Eiichiro. New Probes of Initial State of Quantum Fluctuations During Inflation. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, May. 22, 2012, https://pirsa.org/12050002

BibTex

          @misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:12050002,
            doi = {10.48660/12050002},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/12050002},
            author = {Komatsu, Eiichiro},
            keywords = {Cosmology},
            language = {en},
            title = {New Probes of Initial State of Quantum Fluctuations During Inflation},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics},
            year = {2012},
            month = {may},
            note = {PIRSA:12050002 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/pirsa/12050002}}
          }
          

Eiichiro Komatsu Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA), Garching

Source Repository PIRSA
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

How did inflation actually happen? Precision measurements of statistical properties of primordial fluctuations generated during inflation offer a direct probe of the physics of inflation. When we calculate statistical properties of primordial fluctuations generated during inflation, we usually assume that the initial state of quantum fluctuations is in a preferred vacuum state called Bunch-Davies vacuum. While there is some motivation for choosing such a state, this is an assumption, and thus needs to be tested by observations. In this talk I will present new probes of initial state of quantum fluctuations during inflation: the 3-point function of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy, the 2-point function of galaxies, and a spectral distortion of the thermal spectrum of the cosmic microwave background.