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 in the Planck CMB data. The study explores how new heavy particles produced during inflation can leave imprints in the primordial bispectrum, which can be observed in today's cosmological surveys. The research uses the CMB-BEST pipeline to analyze the three-point statistics of the Planck 2018 temperature and polarization data, searching for specific templates that capture the signatures of cosmological collider physics. These templates include oscillatory signals in the squeezed limit, angular dependence from spinning fields, and new shapes from nontrivial sound speed effects. The analysis finds no significant evidence of cosmological collider signals in the Planck data, but the study demonstrates the potential for discovering new heavy particles during inflation in future cosmological surveys. The results provide stringent constraints on the new templates and show that the most significant signal is at 1.8σ confidence level. The work highlights the importance of the cosmological bootstrap in developing analytic bispectrum templates and provides a framework for future observational studies of cosmological collider signals.This paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of cosmological collider physics in the Planck CMB data. The study explores how new heavy particles produced during inflation can leave imprints in the primordial bispectrum, which can be observed in today's cosmological surveys. The research uses the CMB-BEST pipeline to analyze the three-point statistics of the Planck 2018 temperature and polarization data, searching for specific templates that capture the signatures of cosmological collider physics. These templates include oscillatory signals in the squeezed limit, angular dependence from spinning fields, and new shapes from nontrivial sound speed effects. The analysis finds no significant evidence of cosmological collider signals in the Planck data, but the study demonstrates the potential for discovering new heavy particles during inflation in future cosmological surveys. The results provide stringent constraints on the new templates and show that the most significant signal is at 1.8σ confidence level. The work highlights the importance of the cosmological bootstrap in developing analytic bispectrum templates and provides a framework for future observational studies of cosmological collider signals.