The Matter Bounce Curvaton Scenario

Abstract

Massless scalar fields originating in a quantum vacuum state acquire a scale-invariant spectrum of fluctuations in a matter-dominated contracting universe. We show that these isocurvature fluctuations transfer to a scale-invariant spectrum of curvature fluctuations during a non-singular bounce phase. This provides a mechanism for enhancing the primordial adiabatic fluctuations and suppressing the ratio of tensor to scalar perturbations. Moreover, this mechanism leads to new sources of non-Gaussianity of curvature perturbations.