Intuitive understanding of non-gaussianity in ekpyrotic and cyclic models

It has been pointed out by several groups that ekpyrotic and cyclic models generate significant non-gaussianity. In this paper, we present a physically intuitive, semi-analytic estimate of the bispectrum. We show that, in all such models, there is an intrinsic contribution to the non-gaussianity parameter f_{NL} that is determined by the geometric mean of the equation of state w_{ek} during the ekpyrotic phase and w_{c} during the phase that curvature perturbations are generated and whose value is O(100) or more times the intrinsic value predicted by simple slow-roll inflationary models, f_{NL}^{intrinsic} = O(0.1). Other contributions to f_{NL}, which we also estimate, can increase |f_{NL}| but are unlikely to decrease it significantly, making non-gaussianity a useful test of these models. Furthermore, we discuss a predicted correlation between the non-gaussianity and scalar spectral index that sharpens the test.