Next-generation test of cosmic inflation

Benjamin Gold and Andreas Albrecht
Phys. Rev. D 68, 103518 – Published 25 November 2003
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Abstract

The increasing precision of cosmological datasets is opening up new opportunities to test predictions from cosmic inflation. Here we study the impact of high precision constraints on the primordial power spectrum and show how a new generation of observations can provide impressive new tests of the slow-roll inflation paradigm, as well as produce significant discriminating power among different slow-roll models. In particular, we consider next-generation measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies and (especially) polarization, as well as new Lyman-α measurements that could become practical in the near future. We emphasize relationships between the slope of the power spectrum and its first derivative that are nearly universal among existing slow-roll inflationary models, and show how these relationships can be tested on several scales with new observations. Among other things, our results give additional motivation for an all-out effort to measure CMB polarization.

  • Received 3 January 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.68.103518

©2003 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Benjamin Gold* and Andreas Albrecht

  • Department of Physics, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA

  • *Electronic address: gold@bubba.ucdavis.edu

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Vol. 68, Iss. 10 — 15 November 2003

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