Dissecting the growth of the power spectrum for primordial black holes

Abstract

We consider the steepest rate at which the power spectrum from single field inflation can grow, with the aim of providing a simple explanation for the $k^4$ growth found recently. With this explanation in hand we show that a slightly steeper $k^5 (\log k )^2$ growth is in fact possible. Moreover, we argue that the power spectrum after a steep growth cannot immediately decay, but must remain large for the $k$ modes which exit during a $\sim2$ e-fold period. We also briefly consider how a strong growth can affect the spectral index of longer wavelengths preceding the growth, and show that even the conversion of isocurvature modes likely cannot lead to a stronger growth. These results have implications for the formation of primordial black holes, and other phenomena which require a large amplitude of power spectrum at short scales.