pith. sign in

Sensitivity to a Frequency-Dependent Circular Polarization in an Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background

7 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

7 Pith papers citing it
abstract

We calculate the sensitivity to a circular polarization of an isotropic stochastic gravitational wave background (ISGWB) as a function of frequency for ground- and space-based interferometers and observations of the cosmic microwave background. The origin of a circularly polarized ISGWB may be due to exotic primordial physics (i.e., parity violation in the early universe) and may be strongly frequency dependent. We present calculations within a coherent framework which clarifies the basic requirements for sensitivity to circular polarization, in distinction from previous work which focused on each of these techniques separately. We find that the addition of an interferometer with the sensitivity of the Einstein Telescope in the southern hemisphere improves the sensitivity of the ground-based network to circular polarization by about a factor of two. The sensitivity curves presented in this paper make clear that the wide range in frequencies of current and planned observations ($10^{-18}\ {\rm Hz} \lesssim f \lesssim 100\ {\rm Hz}$) will be critical to determining the physics that underlies any positive detection of circular polarization in the ISGWB. We also identify a desert in circular polarization sensitivity for frequencies between $10^{-15}\ {\rm Hz} \lesssim f \lesssim 10^{-3}\ {\rm Hz}$, given the inability for pulsar timing arrays and indirect-detection methods to distinguish the gravitational wave polarization.

citation-role summary

background 3

citation-polarity summary

years

2026 4 2025 3

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 7

roles

background 3

polarities

background 3

representative citing papers

Chiral gravitational waves from multi-phase magnetogenesis

astro-ph.CO · 2026-02-18 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

Multi-phase inflation with chiral vector interactions generates amplified primordial magnetic fields that induce a detectable circularly polarized gravitational-wave background.

Transient Parity Violation during Inflation: Implications for PTA Gravitational Waves

astro-ph.CO · 2026-04-29 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

A transient parity-violating phase during inflation generates a robust blue-tilted (n_T ≃ 2) primordial gravitational wave spectrum at small scales with nearly maximal helicity coherence and linear polarization, offering a cosmological template for PTA data distinct from astrophysical sources.

citing papers explorer

Showing 7 of 7 citing papers.