Consistency relations for chaotic inflation with a monomial potential and natural inflation and hilltop inflation are given which involve the scalar spectral index $n_s$, the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ and the running of the spectral index $alpha$. The measurement of $alpha$ with $O(10^{-3})$ and the improvement in the measurement of $n_s$ could discriminate monomial model from natural/hilltop inflation models. A consistency region for general large field models is also presented.
We derive the consistency relations for a chaotic inflation model with a non-minimal coupling to gravity. For a quadratic potential in the limit of a small non-minimal coupling parameter $xi$ and for a quartic potential without assuming small $xi$, we give the consistency relations among the spectral index $n_s$, the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ and the running of the spectral index $alpha$. We find that unlike $r$, $alpha$ is less sensitive to $xi$. If $r<0.1$, then $xi$ is constrained to $xi<0$ and $alpha$ is predicted to be $alphasimeq -8times 10^{-4}$ for a quartic potential. For a general monomial potential, $alpha$ is constrained in the range $-2.7times 10^{-3}<alpha< -6times 10^{-4}$ as long as $|xi|leq 10^{-3}$ if $r<0.1$.
We study perturbation theory for large-scale structure in the most general scalar-tensor theories propagating a single scalar degree of freedom, which include Horndeski theories and beyond. We model the parameter space using the effective field theory of dark energy. For Horndeski theories, the gravitational field and fluid equations are invariant under a combination of time-dependent transformations of the coordinates and fields. This symmetry allows one to construct a physical adiabatic mode which fixes the perturbation-theory kernels in the squeezed limit and ensures that the well-known consistency relations for large-scale structure, originally derived in general relativity, hold in modified gravity as well. For theories beyond Horndeski, instead, one generally cannot construct such an adiabatic mode. Because of this, the perturbation-theory kernels are modified in the squeezed limit and the consistency relations for large-scale structure do not hold. We show, however, that the modification of the squeezed limit depends only on the linear theory. We investigate the observational consequences of this violation by computing the matter bispectrum. In the squeezed limit, the largest effect is expected when considering the cross-correlation between different tracers. Moreover, the individual contributions to the 1-loop matter power spectrum do not cancel in the infrared limit of the momentum integral, modifying the power spectrum on non-linear scales.
We study infrared effects in perturbation theory for large-scale structure coupled to the effective field theory of dark energy, focusing on, in particular, Degenerate Higher-Order Scalar-Tensor (DHOST) theories. In the subhorizon, Newtonian limit, DHOST theories introduce an extra large-scale velocity $v^i_pi$ which is in general different from the matter velocity $v^i$. Contrary to the case in Horndeski theories, the presence of this extra large-scale velocity means that one cannot eliminate the long-wavelength effects of both $v^i$ and $v^i_pi$ with a single coordinate transformation, and thus the standard $Lambda$CDM consistency relations for large-scale structure are violated by terms proportional to the relative velocity $v^i - v^i_pi$. We show, however, that in non-linear quantities this violation is determined by the linear equations and the symmetries of the fluid system. We find that the size of the baryon acoustic oscillations in the squeezed limit of the bispectrum is modified, that the bias expansion contains extra terms which contribute to the squeezed limit of the galaxy bispectrum, that infrared modes in the one-loop power spectrum no longer cancel, and that the equal-time double soft limit of the tree-level trispectrum is non-vanishing. In addition, we give explicit expressions for how these violations depend on the relative velocity. Many of our computations are also relevant for perturbation theory in $Lambda$CDM with exact time dependence.
We study tachyon inflation within the large-$N$ formalism, which takes a prescription for the small Hubble flow slow--roll parameter $epsilon_1$ as a function of the large number of $e$-folds $N$. This leads to a classification of models through their behaviour at large $N$. In addition to the perturbative $N$ class, we introduce the polynomial and exponential classes for the $epsilon_1$ parameter. With this formalism we reconstruct a large number of potentials used previously in the literature for Tachyon Inflation. We also obtain new families of potentials form the polynomial class. We characterize the realizations of Tachyon Inflation by computing the usual cosmological observables up to second order in the Hubble flow slow--roll parameters. This allows us to look at observable differences between tachyon and canonical single field inflation. The analysis of observables in light of the Planck 2015 data shows the viability of some of these models, mostly for certain realization of the polynomial and exponential classes.
We study the consequences of spatial coordinate transformation in multi-field inflation. Among the spontaneously broken de Sitter isometries, only dilatation in the comoving gauge preserves the form of the metric and thus results in quantum-protected Slavnov-Taylor identities. We derive the corresponding consistency relations between correlation functions of cosmological perturbations in two different ways, by the connected and one-particle-irreducible Greens functions. The lowest-order consistency relations are explicitly given, and we find that even in multi-field inflation the consistency relations in the soft limit are independent of the detail of the matter sector.