Constraining Primordial Features Beyond the Linear Regime

Abstract: Characterizing the nature of inflation is one of the main challenges in cosmology. Oscillatory features in the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations are an important signature of inflationary physics beyond its simplest incarnations. In this talk, I will show that we can reliably search for these imprints in the distribution of galaxies in the late-time universe. This is based on the insight that the impact of nonlinear evolution of the density fluctuations is a tractable problem. Consequently, we can use the full statistical power of current and future galaxy surveys to search for these inflationary imprints. By generalizing the standard BAO analysis, we infer the most stringent constraints on primordial features to date from the BOSS DR12 dataset.

Video of Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVRXaeHSk9o

Relevant Paper: [1906.08758] Primordial Features from Linear to Nonlinear Scales, by Florian Beutler, Matteo Biagetti, Daniel Green, Anže Slosar, Benjamin Wallisch

cosmology and nongalactic astrophysicsgeneral relativity and quantum cosmology

Audience: advanced learners

( paper | slides | video )

---

CosmoConβ - Cosmology from Home

Series comments: Cosmology from Home is an online cosmology conference. One of its features are pre-recorded talks, publicly available at its YouTube channel.

---