Scale invariance of the primordial tensor power spectrum

Abstract

Future cosmic microwave background polarization experiments will search for evidence of primordial tensor modes at large angular scales, in the multipole range \(4 \leq \ell \leq 50\). Because in that range there is some mild evidence of departures from scale invariance in the power spectrum of primordial curvature perturbations, one may wonder about the possibility that similar deviations appear in the primordial power spectrum of tensor modes. Here we address this issue and analyze the possible presence of features in the tensor spectrum resulting from the dynamics of primordial fluctuations during inflation. We derive a general relation linking features in the spectra for both curvature and tensor perturbations. We conclude that even with large deviations from scale invariance in the curvature power spectrum, the tensor spectrum remains scale invariant for all observational purposes.