Tensor perturbations remain conserved on super-horizon scales when radiation initial conditions during reheating are locally perturbed by existing modes, unlike global equilibrium assumptions that suppress amplitudes.
Gravitational wave background from Standard Model physics: Qualitative features
9 Pith papers cite this work, alongside 108 external citations. Polarity classification is still indexing.
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abstract
Because of physical processes ranging from microscopic particle collisions to macroscopic hydrodynamic fluctuations, any plasma in thermal equilibrium emits gravitational waves. For the largest wavelengths the emission rate is proportional to the shear viscosity of the plasma. In the Standard Model at T > 160 GeV, the shear viscosity is dominated by the most weakly interacting particles, right-handed leptons, and is relatively large. We estimate the order of magnitude of the corresponding spectrum of gravitational waves. Even though at small frequencies (corresponding to the sub-Hz range relevant for planned observatories such as eLISA) this background is tiny compared with that from non-equilibrium sources, the total energy carried by the high-frequency part of the spectrum is non-negligible if the production continues for a long time. We suggest that this may constrain (weakly) the highest temperature of the radiation epoch. Observing the high-frequency part directly sets a very ambitious goal for future generations of GHz-range detectors.
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Derives expressions connecting particle production from metric perturbations to the stress-energy tensor correlator and establishes a phenomenological link between dark matter yield and stochastic gravitational wave background amplitude for sub-horizon sources.
Polarization formalism applied to Gertsenshtein mixing in magnetars yields bounds showing negligible stochastic GW background from magnetar EM emissions.
Perturbative inflaton decay emits an irreducible stochastic GW background with Ω_GW ∝ f spectrum whose amplitude is set by the hard decay rate and reaches O(10^{-17}) at GHz scales.
High-frequency primordial gravitational waves extend to higher frequencies due to post-inflation inflaton dynamics, and their detailed spectrum shape can distinguish inflation models.
Scalar leptoquarks in SU(5) GUT produce a stochastic gravitational wave background via graviton bremsstrahlung whose spectrum may be accessible to resonant-cavity detectors.
PBH-assisted leptogenesis produces a multi-peaked GW spectrum in the MHz-EHz range from RHN graviton bremsstrahlung plus PBH-related sources.
Thermal corrections to reheating and freeze-in DM production rates are generally small in the computable regime but can be large in constructed counter-examples.
A tutorial deriving cosmological perturbation equations from inflation through reheating, with explicit gauge-invariant computations and Python scripts.
citing papers explorer
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On the importance of radiation-era initial conditions for tensor perturbations
Tensor perturbations remain conserved on super-horizon scales when radiation initial conditions during reheating are locally perturbed by existing modes, unlike global equilibrium assumptions that suppress amplitudes.
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Particle Production from Inhomogeneities: the off-shell side of gravitational waves
Derives expressions connecting particle production from metric perturbations to the stress-energy tensor correlator and establishes a phenomenological link between dark matter yield and stochastic gravitational wave background amplitude for sub-horizon sources.
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Polarization Formalism for Photon-Gravitational Wave Mixing Around Magnetars
Polarization formalism applied to Gertsenshtein mixing in magnetars yields bounds showing negligible stochastic GW background from magnetar EM emissions.
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Irreducible Graviton Floor from Reheating
Perturbative inflaton decay emits an irreducible stochastic GW background with Ω_GW ∝ f spectrum whose amplitude is set by the hard decay rate and reaches O(10^{-17}) at GHz scales.
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High Frequency Spectrum of Primordial Gravitational Waves
High-frequency primordial gravitational waves extend to higher frequencies due to post-inflation inflaton dynamics, and their detailed spectrum shape can distinguish inflation models.
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Gravitational waves from graviton bremsstrahlung in scalar leptoquark decays
Scalar leptoquarks in SU(5) GUT produce a stochastic gravitational wave background via graviton bremsstrahlung whose spectrum may be accessible to resonant-cavity detectors.
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Multi-peaked high-frequency gravitational waves from PBH-assisted leptogenesis
PBH-assisted leptogenesis produces a multi-peaked GW spectrum in the MHz-EHz range from RHN graviton bremsstrahlung plus PBH-related sources.
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Thermal effects on Dark Matter production during cosmic reheating
Thermal corrections to reheating and freeze-in DM production rates are generally small in the computable regime but can be large in constructed counter-examples.
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From inflation to hot big bang -- a tutorial on cosmological perturbations
A tutorial deriving cosmological perturbation equations from inflation through reheating, with explicit gauge-invariant computations and Python scripts.