A key insight of the bootstrap approach to cosmological correlations is the fact that all correlators of slow-roll inflation can be reduced to a unique building block - the four-point function of conformally coupled scalars, arising from the exchange of a massive scalar. Correlators corresponding to the exchange of particles with spin are then obtained by applying a spin-raising operator to the scalar-exchange solution. Similarly, the correlators of massless external fields can be derived by acting with a suitable weight-raising operator. In this paper, we present a systematic and highly streamlined derivation of these operators (and their generalizations) using tools of conformal field theory. Our results…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 1813694, AST-1813694
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Award: DE-SC0019018
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Award: NNX16AB27G
• EC
  European Commission

  Award: 751778
• UV
  Universiteit van Amsterdam
• NO
  Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek