Positivity in the effective field theory of cosmological perturbations

Abstract

Abstract Requiring the existence of a unitary, causal and local UV-completion places a set of positivity bounds on the corresponding effective field theories (EFTs). We discuss the obstructions and possibility in applying the positivity bound to cosmology, in particular the EFT of cosmological perturbations. Taking a $$c_T=1$$ cT=1 beyond-Horndeski EFT as an illustrative example, we derive such bounds, which incorporate the cosmological correction of order $$H^2/\Lambda ^2$$ H2/Λ2 , $$\Lambda $$ Λ being the cutoff scale. The derived bounds are applied to slow-roll inflation with beyond Horndeski operators. It is found that the cosmological positivity bounds may be either stronger or weaker than their flat space counterpart.