It is known that power-law k-inflation can be realized for the Lagrangian $P=Xg(Y)$, where $X=-(partial phi)^2/2$ is the kinetic energy of a scalar field $phi$ and $g$ is an arbitrary function in terms of $Y=Xe^{lambda phi/M_{pl}}$ ($lambda$ is a con
stant and $M_{pl}$ is the reduced Planck mass). In the presence of a vector field coupled to the inflaton with an exponential coupling $f(phi) propto e^{mu phi/M_{pl}}$, we show that the models with the Lagrangian $P=Xg(Y)$ generally give rise to anisotropic inflationary solutions with $Sigma/H=constant$, where $Sigma$ is an anisotropic shear and $H$ is an isotropic expansion rate. Provided these anisotropic solutions exist in the regime where the ratio $Sigma/H$ is much smaller than 1, they are stable attractors irrespective of the forms of $g(Y)$. We apply our results to concrete models of k-inflation such as the generalized dilatonic ghost condensate/the DBI model and we numerically show that the solutions with different initial conditions converge to the anisotropic power-law inflationary attractors. Even in the de Sitter limit ($lambda to 0$) such solutions can exist, but in this case the null energy condition is generally violated. The latter property is consistent with the Walds cosmic conjecture stating that the anisotropic hair does not survive on the de Sitter background in the presence of matter respecting the dominant/strong energy conditions.
We study observational signatures of two classes of anisotropic inflationary models in which an inflaton field couples to (i) a vector kinetic term F_{mu nu}F^{mu nu} and (ii) a two-form kinetic term H_{mu nu lambda}H^{mu nu lambda}. We compute the c
orrections from the anisotropic sources to the power spectrum of gravitational waves as well as the two-point cross correlation between scalar and tensor perturbations. The signs of the anisotropic parameter g_* are different depending on the vector and the two-form models, but the statistical anisotropies generally lead to a suppressed tensor-to-scalar ratio r and a smaller scalar spectral index n_s in both models. In the light of the recent Planck bounds of n_s and r, we place observational constraints on several different inflaton potentials such as those in chaotic and natural inflation in the presence of anisotropic interactions. In the two-form model we also find that there is no cross correlation between scalar and tensor perturbations, while in the vector model the cross correlation does not vanish. The non-linear estimator f_{NL} of scalar non-Gaussianities in the two-form model is generally smaller than that in the vector model for the same orders of |g_*|, so that the former is easier to be compatible with observational bounds of non-Gaussianities than the latter.
We study an inflationary scenario with a two-form field to which an inflaton couples non-trivially. First, we show that anisotropic inflation can be realized as an attractor solution and that the two-form hair remains during inflation. A statistical
anisotropy can be developed because of a cumulative anisotropic interaction induced by the background two-form field. The power spectrum of curvature perturbations has a prolate-type anisotropy, in contrast to the vector models having an oblate-type anisotropy. We also evaluate the bispectrum and trispectrum of curvature perturbations by employing the in-in formalism based on the interacting Hamiltonians. We find that the non-linear estimators $f_{NL}$ and $tau_{NL}$ are correlated with the amplitude $g_*$ of the statistical anisotropy in the power spectrum. Unlike the vector models, both $f_{NL}$ and $tau_{NL}$ vanish in the squeezed limit. However, the estimator $f_{NL}$ can reach the order of 10 in the equilateral and enfolded limits. These results are consistent with the latest bounds on $f_{NL}$ constrained by Planck.
