Anisotropic inflation from vector impurity

Abstract

We study an inflationary scenario with a vector impurity. We show that the universe undergoes anisotropic inflationary expansion due to a preferred direction determined by the vector. Using the slow-roll approximation, we find a formula to determine anisotropy of the inflationary universe. We discuss possible observable predictions of this scenario. In particular, it is stressed that primordial gravitational waves can be induced from curvature perturbations. Hence, even in low scale inflation, a sizable amount of primordial gravitational waves may be produced during inflation.