Scale-invariant cosmological perturbations from Horava-Lifshitz gravity without inflation

Abstract

Based on the renormalizable theory of gravitation recently proposed by Horava, we present a simple scenario to generate almost scale-invariant, super-horizon curvature perturbations. The anisotropic scaling with dynamical critical exponent z=3 implies that the amplitude of quantum fluctuations of a free scalar field generated in the early epoch of the expanding universe is insensitive to the Hubble expansion rate and, thus, scale-invariant. Those fluctuations are later converted to curvature perturbations by the curvaton mechanism or/and the modulated decay of heavy particles/oscillating fields. This scenario works, for example, for power law expansion a\propto t^p with p>1/3 and, thus, does not require inflation. Also, this scenario does not rely on any additional assumptions such as the detailed balance condition.

Comments: 11 pages; a schematic picture of exit from and re-entry to sound horizon was added (v2); version accepted for publication in JCAP (v3); published version (v4)