Primordial trispectra and CMB spectral distortions

Abstract

We study the $TTμ$ bispectrum, generated by correlations between Cosmic Microwave Background temperature (T) anisotropies and chemical potential ($μ$) distortions, and we analyze its dependence on primordial local trispectrum parameters $g_{\rm NL}$ and $τ_{\rm NL}$. We cross-check our results by comparing the full bispectrum calculation with the expectations from a general physical argument, based on predicting the shape of $μ$-T correlations from the couplings between short and long perturbation modes induced by primordial non-Gaussianity. We show that $both$ $g_{\rm NL}$ and $τ_{\rm NL}$-parts of the primordial trispectrum source a non-vanishing $TTμ$ signal, contrary to the $μμ$ auto-correlation function, which is sensitive only to the $τ_{\rm NL}$-component. A simple Fisher matrix-based forecast shows that a futuristic, cosmic-variance dominated experiment could in principle detect $g_{\rm NL} \sim 0.4$ and $τ_{\rm NL} \sim 40$ using $TTμ$.