Effects of the speed of sound at large-N

Understand

The implications of a smaller than unity speed of sound of the scalar perturbations during cosmic inflation is studied in terms of a model independent large-$N$ approach.

• We show that the $(n_s, r)$ plane is non-trivially degenerated when the effects of a different than one speed of sound $c_s$ are taken into account.
• We also discuss the degeneracies due to $c_s$ in the running of the spectral index, $\alpha_s$.
• We use the bounds on $c_s$ to constrain such degeneracies.