Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW D
Volume 91, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.91.063504
Keywords
-
Funding
- XSEDE allocation [TG-AST130007]
- NSF [PHY-1214648]
- City University of New York High Performance Computing Center under NSF [CNS-0855217, CNS-0958379, ACI-1126113]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [1153335] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Physics [1214648] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We point out three correlated predictions of the axion monodromy inflation model: the large amplitude of gravitational waves, the suppression of power on horizon scales and on scales relevant for the formation of dwarf galaxies. While these predictions are likely generic to models with oscillations in the inflaton potential, the axion monodromy model naturally accommodates the required running spectral index through Planck-scale corrections to the inflaton potential. Applying this model to a combined data set of Planck, ACT, SPT, and WMAP low-l polarization cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, we find a best-fit tensor-to-scalar ratio r(0.05) = 0.07(-0.04)(+0.05) due to gravitational waves, which may have been observed by the BICEP2 experiment. Despite the contribution of gravitational waves, the total power on large scales (CMB power spectrum at low multipoles) is lower than the standard Lambda CDM cosmology with a power-law spectrum of initial perturbations and no gravitational waves, thus mitigating some of the tension on large scales. There is also a reduction in the matter power spectrum of 20-30% at scales corresponding to k = 10 Mpc(-1), which are relevant for dwarf galaxy formation. This will alleviate some of the unsolved small-scale structure problems in the standard Lambda CDM cosmology. The inferred matter power spectrum is also found to be consistent with recent Lyman-alpha forest data, which is in tension with the Planck-favored Lambda CDM model with a power-law primordial power spectrum.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available