A new gravitational wave background from the Big Bang

dc.creatorGarcia-Bellido, Juan
dc.creatorFigueroa, Daniel G.
dc.date2008-01-27
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T08:56:43Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T08:56:43Z
dc.descriptionThe reheating of the universe after hybrid inflation proceeds through the nucleation and subsequent collision of large concentrations of energy density in the form of bubble-like structures moving at relativistic speeds. This generates a significant fraction of energy in the form of a stochastic background of gravitational waves, whose time evolution is determined by the successive stages of reheating: First, tachyonic preheating makes the amplitude of gravity waves grow exponentially fast. Second, bubble collisions add a new burst of gravitational radiation. Third, turbulent motions finally sets the end of gravitational waves production. From then on, these waves propagate unimpeded to us. We find that the fraction of energy density today in these primordial gravitational waves could be significant for GUT scale models of inflation, although well beyond the frequency range sensitivity of gravitational wave observatories like LIGO, LISA or BBO. However, low-scale models could still produce a detectable signal at frequencies accessible to BBO or DECIGO. For comparison, we have also computed the analogous background from some chaotic inflation models and obtained similar results to those of other groups. The discovery of such a background would open a new observational window into the very early universe, where the details of the process of reheating could be explored. Thus, it could also serve as a new experimental tool for testing the Inflationary Paradigm.
dc.description20 pages, 8 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of JGRG17, Nagoya (Japan), 3-7 December 2007
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0801.4109
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0801.4109
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/146714
dc.subjectGeneral Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.subjectHigh Energy Physics - Phenomenology
dc.titleA new gravitational wave background from the Big Bang
dc.typetext

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