CMB Fluctuations and String Compactification Scales

Abstract

We propose a mechanism for the generation of temperature fluctuations of cosmic microwave background. We consider a large number of fields, such as Kaluza-Klein modes and string excitations. Each field contributes to the gravitational potential by a small amount, but an observable level of temperature fluctuations is achieved by summing up the contribution of typically of order 10^{14} fields. Tensor fluctuations are hardly affected by these fields. Our mechanism is based on purely quantum effects, and is different from the "slow-roll" or "curvaton" scenario. Using the observed data, we find constraints on the parameters of this model, such as the size of the extra dimensions and the string scale. Our model predicts a particular pattern of non-gaussianity with a small magnitude.