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The inflationary trispectrum

David Seery·James E. Lidsey·Martin S. Sloth
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Abstract

We calculate the trispectrum of the primordial curvature perturbation generated by an epoch of slow-roll inflation in the early universe, and demonstrate that the non-gaussian signature imprinted at horizon crossing is unobservably small, of order tau_NL < r/50, where r < 1 is the tensor-to-scalar ratio. Therefore any primordial non-gaussianity observed in future microwave background experiments is likely to have been synthesized by gravitational effects on superhorizon scales. We discuss the application of Maldacena's consistency condition to the trispectrum.

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David Seery, James E. Lidsey, Martin S. Sloth. 2007-01-30. The inflationary trispectrum. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516%2F2007%2F01%2F027

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