Particle production during inflation and gravitational waves detectable by ground-based interferometers
Sep, 201120 pages
Published in:
- Phys.Rev.D 85 (2012) 023534,
- Phys.Rev.D 86 (2012) 069901 (erratum)
e-Print:
- 1109.0022 [astro-ph.CO]
View in:
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Abstract: (arXiv)
Inflation typically predicts a quasi scale-invariant spectrum of gravitational waves. In models of slow-roll inflation, the amplitude of such a background is too small to allow direct detection without a dedicated space-based experiment such as the proposed BBO or DECIGO. In this paper we note that particle production during inflation can generate a feature in the spectrum of primordial gravitational waves. We discuss the possibility that such a feature might be detected by ground-based laser interferometers such as Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo, which will become operational in the next few years. We also discuss the prospects of detection by a space interferometer like LISA. We first study gravitational waves induced by nonperturbative, explosive particle production during inflation: while explosive production of scalar quanta does not generate a significant bump in the primordial tensor spectrum, production of vectors can. We also show that chiral gravitational waves produced by electromagnetic fields amplified by an axion-like inflaton could be detectable by Advanced LIGO.Note:
- 20 pages, 3 figures, version on Phys. Rev. D
- 98.80.Qc
- 04.30.Db
- 98.80.Cq
- gravitational radiation: spectrum
- gravitational radiation: primordial
- inflation: slow-roll approximation
- VIRGO
- LISA
- production
- nonperturbative
References(32)
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