10 Apr 2024 | Wuhyun Sohn, Dong-Gang Wang, James R. Fergusson, and E. P. S. Shellard
This paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of cosmological collider physics using cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the Planck legacy release. The authors propose a set of analytic bispectrum templates that incorporate distinctive signatures of cosmological collider physics, including oscillatory signals in the squeezed limit, angular dependence from spinning fields, and new shapes from nontrivial sound speed effects. They apply the CMB Bispectrum Estimator (CMB-BEST) pipeline to analyze the three-point statistics and search for these templates in the Planck 2018 temperature and polarization data. The analysis yields stringent constraints on the templates and performs parameter scans to find the best-fit values. A benchmark example of collider templates shows a $f_{\text{NL}} = -91 \pm 40$ at the 68% confidence level, with the adjusted significance being 1.8$\sigma$. Despite no significant evidence of cosmological collider signals in the Planck data, the study demonstrates the potential for discovering new heavy particles during inflation in future cosmological surveys.This paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of cosmological collider physics using cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the Planck legacy release. The authors propose a set of analytic bispectrum templates that incorporate distinctive signatures of cosmological collider physics, including oscillatory signals in the squeezed limit, angular dependence from spinning fields, and new shapes from nontrivial sound speed effects. They apply the CMB Bispectrum Estimator (CMB-BEST) pipeline to analyze the three-point statistics and search for these templates in the Planck 2018 temperature and polarization data. The analysis yields stringent constraints on the templates and performs parameter scans to find the best-fit values. A benchmark example of collider templates shows a $f_{\text{NL}} = -91 \pm 40$ at the 68% confidence level, with the adjusted significance being 1.8$\sigma$. Despite no significant evidence of cosmological collider signals in the Planck data, the study demonstrates the potential for discovering new heavy particles during inflation in future cosmological surveys.