Large non-Gaussianities in the Effective Field Theory Approach to Single-Field Inflation: the Trispectrum

Abstract

We perform the analysis of the trispectrum of curvature perturbations generated by the interactions characterizing a general theory of single-field inflation obtained by effective field theory methods. We find that curvature-generated interaction terms, which can in general give an important contribution to the amplitude of the four-point function, show some new distinctive features in the form of their trispectrum shape-function. These interesting interactions are invariant under some recently proposed symmetries of the general theory and, as shown explicitly, do allow for a large value of the trispectrum.