Primordial polymer perturbations
  We study the generation of primordial fluctuations in pure de Sitter
inflation where the quantum scalar field dynamics are governed by polymer (not
Schrodinger) quantization. This quantization scheme is related to, but distinct
from, the structures employed in Loop Quantum Gravity; and it modifies standard
results above a polymer energy scale $M_{\star}$. We recover the scale
invariant Harrison Zel'dovich spectrum for modes that have wavelengths bigger
than $M_{\star}^{-1}$ at the start of inflation. The primordial spectrum for
modes with initial wavelengths smaller than $M_{\star}^{-1}$ exhibits
oscillations superimposed on the standard result. The amplitude of these
oscillations is proportional to the ratio of the inflationary Hubble parameter
$H$ to the polymer energy scale. For reasonable choices of $M_{\star}$, we find
that polymer effects are likely unobservable in CMB angular power spectra due
to cosmic variance uncertainty, but future probes of baryon acoustic
oscillations may be able to directly constrain the ratio $H/M_{\star}$.
