Parity violation in the scalar trispectrum: no-go theorems and yes-go examples

Cabass, Giovanni; Jazayeri, Sadra; Pajer, Enrico; Stefanyszyn, David

Abstract

We derive a set of no-go theorems and yes-go examples for the parity-odd primordial trispectrum of curvature perturbations. We work at tree-level in the decoupling limit of the Effective Field Theory of Inflation and assume scale invariance and a Bunch-Davies vacuum. We show that the parity-odd scalar trispectrum vanishes in the presence of any number of scalar fields with arbitrary mass and any parity-odd scalar correlator vanishes in the presence of any number of spinning fields with massless de Sitter mode functions, in agreement with the findings of Liu, Tong, Wang and Xianyu [1]. The same is true for correlators with an odd number of conformally-coupled external fields. We derive these results using both the (boostless) cosmological bootstrap, in particular the Cosmological Optical Theorem, and explicit perturbative calculations. We then discuss a series of yes-go examples by relaxing the above assumptions one at the time. In particular, we provide explicit results for the parity-odd trispectrum for (i) violations of scale invariance in single-clock inflation, (ii) the modified dispersion relation of the ghost condensate (non-Bunch-Davies vacuum), and (iii) interactions with massive spinning fields. Our results establish the parity-odd trispectrum as an exceptionally sensitive probe of new physics beyond vanilla inflation.

Citation

Cabass, G., Jazayeri, S., Pajer, E., & Stefanyszyn, D. (2023). Parity violation in the scalar trispectrum: no-go theorems and yes-go examples. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2023(2), Article 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep02%282023%29021

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 14, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Feb 2, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-03
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 3, 2023
• Journal: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Electronic ISSN: 1029-8479
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2023
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: 21
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep02%282023%29021
• Keywords: Early Universe Particle Physics, Effective Field Theories, Space-Time Symmetries
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/17071410
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP02(2023)021
• Additional Information: Received: 16 October 2022; Accepted: 14 January 2023; First Online: 2 February 2023