Gene

Theoretical physics

Spin (aerodynamics)

Massless particle

Inflation (cosmology)

Mathematical physics

Operator product expansion

Particle physics

Biochemistry

Scalar field

Thermodynamics

Physics

Scalar (mathematics)

Mathematics

Quantum electrodynamics

Transcription factor

Mathematical analysis

Geometry

Conformal map

Repressor

Chemistry

Operator (biology)

Journal of High Energy Physics

A bstract A key insight of the bootstrap approach to cosmological correlations is the fact that all correlators of slow-roll inflation can be reduced to a unique building block — the four-point function of conformally coupled scalars, arising from the exchange of a massive scalar. Correlators corresponding to the exchange of particles with spin are then obtained by applying a spin-raising operator to the scalar-exchange solution. Similarly, the correlators of massless external fields can be derived by acting with a suitable weight-raising operator. In this paper, we present a systematic and highly streamlined derivation of these operators (and their generalizations) using tools of conformal field theory. Our results greatly simplify the theoretical foundations of the cosmological bootstrap program.

The cosmological bootstrap: weight-shifting operators and scalar seeds