Explicit spacetime-symmetry breaking and the dynamics of primordial fields

Abstract: We study the effects of explicit spacetime-symmetry breaking on primordial tensor fluctuations using an effective-field theory for Lorentz/CPT violation. We find that the graviton is still massless, but that the propagation speed of tensor modes is modified, and we obtain a constraint on the coefficient determining the symmetry breaking on the order of $10^{-15}$ from the recent measurements of the speed of gravity. Due to the symmetry breaking, the de-Sitter phase is modified, and during this inflationary epoch, the power spectrum assumes a slow oscillation around the general-relativity limit; further, we find that the primordial tensor power spectrum retains its scale invariance, but that the amplitude is modified. We also find that the modes which become subhorizon during radiation domination acquire a phase shift proportional to the coefficient for Lorentz violation.