Phenomenology of a Pseudo-Scalar Inflaton: Naturally Large
  Nongaussianity
  Many controlled realizations of chaotic inflation employ pseudo-scalar
axions. Pseudo-scalars \phi are naturally coupled to gauge fields through c
\phi F \tilde{F}. In the presence of this coupling, gauge field quanta are
copiously produced by the rolling inflaton. The produced gauge quanta, in turn,
source inflaton fluctuations via inverse decay. These new cosmological
perturbations add incoherently with the "vacuum" perturbations, and are highly
nongaussian. This provides a natural mechanism to generate large nongaussianity
in single or multi field slow-roll inflation. The resulting phenomenological
signatures are highly distinctive: large nongaussianity of (nearly) equilateral
shape, in addition to detectably large values of both the scalar spectral tilt
and tensor-to-scalar ratio (both being typical of large field inflation). The
WMAP bound on nongaussianity implies that the coupling, c, of the pseudo-scalar
inflaton to any gauge field must be smaller than about 10^{2} M_p^{-1}.
