Cosmological gravitational wave background from primordial density perturbations

Journal Article · Fri Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.75.123518· OSTI ID:20933319

Ananda, Kishore N; Wands, David ^[1]; Clarkson, Chris ^[1]

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1. Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Mercantile House, Portsmouth PO1 2EG (United Kingdom)

We discuss the gravitational wave background generated by primordial density perturbations evolving during the radiation era. At second order in a perturbative expansion, density fluctuations produce gravitational waves. We calculate the power spectra of gravitational waves from this mechanism, and show that, in principle, future gravitational wave detectors could be used to constrain the primordial power spectrum on scales vastly different from those currently being probed by a large-scale structure. As examples we compute the gravitational wave background generated by both a power-law spectrum on all scales, and a delta-function power spectrum on a single scale.

• OSTI ID: 20933319
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 75, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.75.123518; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COSMOLOGY
DELTA FUNCTION
ENERGY SPECTRA
EXPANSION
FLUCTUATIONS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTORS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
PERTURBATION THEORY