Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Nonlocal primordial non-Gaussianity (NLPNG) is a smoking gun of interactions in single-field inflationary models and can be written as a combination of the equilateral and orthogonal templates. We present the first constraints on these from the redshift-space galaxy power spectra and bispectra of the BOSS data. These are the first such measurements independent of the cosmic microwave background fluctuations. We perform a consistent analysis that includes all necessary nonlinear corrections generated by NLPNG and vary all relevant cosmological and nuisance parameters in a global fit to the data. Our conservative analysis yields joint limits on the amplitudes of the equilateral and orthogonal shapes, ${f}_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\text{equil}}=940\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}600$ and ${f}_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\text{ortho}}=\ensuremath{-}170\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}170$ (both at 68% CL). These can be used to derive constraints on coefficients of the effective single-field inflationary Lagrangian; in particular, we find that the sound speed of inflaton fluctuations has the bound ${c}_{s}\ensuremath{\ge}0.013$ at 95% CL. Fixing the quadratic galaxy bias and cosmological parameters, the constraints can be tightened to ${f}_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\text{equil}}=260\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}300$ and ${f}_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\text{ortho}}=\ensuremath{-}23\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}120$ (68% CL).
Source: Physical Review Letters
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,750
Awards: G3524825937, G58316358
OpenAlex ID: W4221144289