Gravitational Wave non-Gaussianity from trans-Planckian Quantum Noise

Abstract

We examine the effect of a trans-Planckian phase on the dynamics of inflationary tensor perturbations. To remedy the fact that this regime is not fully captured by standard perturbation theory, we introduce an effective quantum noise source, whose role is regulated by the energy scale $\Lambda$. The presence of the source modifies the initial conditions for the tensor modes, leaving a distinct imprint. We study the amplitude and shape of the gravitational wave bispectrum of the model and compare these with their counterparts obtained under the assumptions of Bunch-Davies initial conditions and $\alpha$-vacua states. Depending on the value of the scale $\Lambda$, we find distinctive signatures associated with both the bispectrum shape and the non-linear parameter $f_{\rm NL}$.