Holographic inflation and the conservation of $\zeta$

Abstract

In a holographic description of inflation, cosmological time evolution in the bulk is expected to correspond to the renomalization group (RG) flow in a dual boundary theory. Here, we analyze this expectation by computing the correlation functions of the curvature perturbation $\zeta$ holographically. For this purpose, we use a deformed conformal field theory at the boundary, with a single deformation operator. In standard single field models of inflation, $\zeta$ is known to be conserved at large scales under very general conditions. However, we find that this is not generically the case in the dual description. The requirement that higher correlators of $\zeta$ should be conserved severely restricts the possibilities for the RG flow. With such restriction, the power spectrum $P_\zeta$ must follow an exact power law, at least within the regime of validity of conformal perturbation theory.