Amplifying the Cosmological Collider with Ghost Spectators
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Ferreira, Matheus Curado Falciano, F. T. Pimentel, Guilherme L. |
| author_facet | Ferreira, Matheus Curado Falciano, F. T. Pimentel, Guilherme L. |
| contents | Ghost inflation is a well-known framework in which cosmological fluctuations can generate enhanced primordial non-Gaussianity, typically of the equilateral type. In its original form, however, it is in tension with current observational constraints. Here we instead consider a setup in which a standard inflaton drives the background evolution, while excitations of a ghost condensate act as spectator fields that interact with the inflaton. This proposal fits naturally within the cosmological collider program: the exchanged particle has a modified dispersion relation, $ω\propto k^2$. We show that this ghost-inspired dynamics weakens the usual Boltzmann suppression, similarly to models with a very small effective sound speed, yielding an enhanced bispectrum signal relative to standard cosmological collider scenarios. At the same time, the horizon-crossing scale remains a free parameter of the theory. As a result, the model shares features of both the de Sitter bootstrap and boostless frameworks. Finally, we derive the differential equations governing cosmological correlators in the ghost-collider setup. Their structure reflects the quadratic momentum dependence of the dispersion relation and distinguishes this scenario from conventional relativistic cases. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14413 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Amplifying the Cosmological Collider with Ghost Spectators Ferreira, Matheus Curado Falciano, F. T. Pimentel, Guilherme L. High Energy Physics - Theory General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Ghost inflation is a well-known framework in which cosmological fluctuations can generate enhanced primordial non-Gaussianity, typically of the equilateral type. In its original form, however, it is in tension with current observational constraints. Here we instead consider a setup in which a standard inflaton drives the background evolution, while excitations of a ghost condensate act as spectator fields that interact with the inflaton. This proposal fits naturally within the cosmological collider program: the exchanged particle has a modified dispersion relation, $ω\propto k^2$. We show that this ghost-inspired dynamics weakens the usual Boltzmann suppression, similarly to models with a very small effective sound speed, yielding an enhanced bispectrum signal relative to standard cosmological collider scenarios. At the same time, the horizon-crossing scale remains a free parameter of the theory. As a result, the model shares features of both the de Sitter bootstrap and boostless frameworks. Finally, we derive the differential equations governing cosmological correlators in the ghost-collider setup. Their structure reflects the quadratic momentum dependence of the dispersion relation and distinguishes this scenario from conventional relativistic cases. |
| title | Amplifying the Cosmological Collider with Ghost Spectators |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Theory General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14413 |