Non-Gaussian Spikes from Chaotic Billiards in Inflation Preheating
Abstract
A new class of non-Gaussian curvature fluctuations ζpr () δ N(i) arises from the post-inflation preheating behaviour of a non-inflaton field i. Its billiard-like chaotic dynamics imprints regular log-spaced narrow spikes in the number of preheating e-folds N(i). We perform highly accurate lattice simulations of SUSY-inspired quartic inflaton and coupling potentials in a separate-universe approximation to compute N(i) as a function of the (nearly homogeneous) initial condition i. The super-horizon modes of i() result in positive spiky excursions in ζpr and hence negative gravitational potential fluctuations added to the usual sign-independent inflaton-induced perturbations, observably manifested in large cosmic structures and as (polarized) temperature CMB cold spots.
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