Particle production during inflation: A Bayesian analysis with CMB data from Planck 2018

Abstract: A class of inflationary models that involve rapid bursts of particle productions predict observational signatures, such as bump-like features in the primordial scalar power spectrum. In this work, we analyze such models by comparing their predictions with the latest CMB data from Planck 2018. We consider two scenarios of particle production. The first one is a simple scenario consisting of a single burst of particle production during observable inflation. The second one consists of multiple bursts of particle production that lead to a series of bump-like features in the primordial power spectrum. We find that the second scenario of the multi-bump model gives better fit to the CMB data compared to the concordance $\Lambda$CDM model. We carried out model comparisons using Bayesian evidences. From the observational constraints on the amplitude of primordial features of the multi-bump model, we find that the coupling parameter $g$ responsible for particle production is bound to be $g< 0.05$.