Non-Gaussianity from tachyonic preheating in hybrid inflation

In a previous work we showed that large non-Gaussianities and nonscale-invariant distortions in the cosmic microwave background power spectrum can be generated in hybrid inflation models, due to the contributions of the tachyon (waterfall) field to the second order curvature perturbation. Here we clarify, correct, and extend those results. We show that large non-Gaussianity occurs only when the tachyon remains light throughout inflation, whereas n=4 contamination to the spectrum is the dominant effect when the tachyon is heavy. We find constraints on the parameters of warped-throat brane-antibrane inflation from non-Gaussianity. For F-term and D-term inflation models from supergravity, we obtain nontrivial constraints from the spectral distortion effect. We also establish that our analysis applies to complex tachyon fields.