Seeing Orbifold GUTs In Primordial Non-Gaussianities - Speaker: Soubikh Kumar

Abstract

The minimal Standard Model running of the gauge couplings gives us a hint of a Grand Unified Theory (GUT) at M_U ~ 10^14 GeV — a scale, however, too high to probe directly via collider searches. Fortunately, since the inflationary Hubble scale H can be as high as  5 x 10^13 GeV ~ M_U, such GUT scale states can be cosmologically produced during inflation and contribute to primordial non-Gaussianity (NG).

In this talk, I will explore the possibility of doing on-shell, mass-spin spectroscopy of GUT-states by studying such NG contributions in an extra-dimensional framework of orbifold GUTs. I will identify an interesting regime where the extra dimension is stabilized close to the onset of a horizon and find that the KK gravitons and KK gauge bosons can mediate observable NG providing a direct probe of orbifold GUTs.