Density perturbations from both the inflaton and the curvaton

Abstract

We consider a supersymmetric grand unified model which leads to hybrid inflation and solves the strong CP and mu problems via a Peccei-Quinn symmetry, with the Peccei-Quinn field acting as a curvaton generating together with the inflaton the curvature perturbation. The model yields an isocurvature perturbation too of mixed correlation with the adiabatic one. Two choices of parameters are confronted with the Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe and other cosmic microwave background radiation data. For the choice giving the best fitting, the curvaton contribution to the amplitude of the adiabatic perturbation must be smaller than 67% at 95% confidence level and the best-fit power spectra are dominated by the adiabatic inflaton contribution. This case is disfavored relative to the pure inflaton scale-invariant case with odds of 50 to 1. For the second choice, the adiabatic mode is dominated by the curvaton, but this case is strongly disfavored relative to the pure inflaton case (with odds of 10^7 to 1). Thus, in this model, the perturbations must be dominated by the adiabatic component from the inflaton.