Equilateral non-Gaussianity from heavy fields

Abstract

The effect of self-interactions of heavy scalar fields during inflation on the primordial non-Gaussianity is studied. We take a specific constant-turn quasi-single field inflation as an example. We derive an effective theory with emphasis on non-linear self-interactions of heavy fields and calculate the corresponding non-Gaussianity, which is of equilateral type and can be as relevant as those computed previously in the literature. We also derive the non-Gaussianity by directly using the in-in formalism, and verify the equivalence of these two approaches.