Cluster Bootstrap for Cosmological Correlators

Abstract

We show that cosmological wavefunction coefficients associated with $n$-site chain and loop graphs for a cubic scalar theory in de Sitter spacetime have symbol alphabets given by subsets of $A_{2n{-}2}$ and $B_{2n{-}1}$ cluster variables, respectively, and satisfy the associated cluster adjacency properties. The key step in proving this is identifying a precise connection between graph "tubings" that appear in the kinematic flow equation and polygon "triangulations" that encode the combinatorics of cluster compatibility. Our results imply that cosmological wavefunction coefficients in a general power-law FRW cosmology satisfy cluster adjacency to all orders in the $\epsilon$ expansion. We use this information as bootstrap input to show that de Sitter symbols for $n \leq 4$ are uniquely determined by simple physical constraints.