Joint cosmology seminar at MIT:

Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 2:30 pm
Cosman Seminar Room
Center for Theoretical Physics
Building 6C, Room 6C-442
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Refreshments at 2:00 in the same room

Signatures from Excited Initial States

Sonia Paban
University of Texas at Austin and MIT

Abstract:

We will present back-reaction constraints on excited initial states and their effect on the power spectrum, non-gaussianities and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. An example of excited initial state arises when the metric at the beginning of inflation is an anisotropic Bianchi I instead of an FRW. We will describe this state and its signatures.