General conditions for scale-invariant perturbations in an expanding universe

Abstract: We investigate the general properties of expanding cosmological models which generate scale-invariant curvature perturbations in the presence of a variable speed of sound. We show that in an expanding universe, generation of a super-Hubble, nearly scale-invariant spectrum of perturbations over a range of wavelengths consistent with observation requires at least one of three conditions: (1) accelerating expansion, (2) a speed of sound faster than the speed of light, or (3) super-Planckian energy density.