Non-Gaussianity from the hybrid potential

Understand

We study the hybrid inflationary potential in a regime where the defect field is light, and more than 60 e-folds of accelerated expansion occur after the symmetry breaking transition.

• Using analytic and numerical techniques, we then identify parameter values within this regime for which the statistics of the primordial curvature perturbation are significantly non-Gaussian.
• Focusing on this range of parameters, we provide a specific example which leads to an observationally consistent power spectrum, and a level of non-Gaussianity within current WMAP bounds and in reach of the Planck satellite.
• An interesting feature of this example is that the initial conditions at horizon crossing appear quite natural.