Gravitational wave background from reheating after hybrid inflation

Journal Article · Fri Feb 15 04:00:00 EST 2008 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.77.043517· OSTI ID:21039105

Garcia-Bellido, Juan; Figueroa, Daniel G; Sastre, Alfonso ^[1]

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1. Departamento de Fisica Teorica, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain and Instituto de Fisica Teorica CSIC-UAM, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid (Spain)

The reheating of the Universe after hybrid inflation proceeds through the nucleation and subsequent collision of large concentrations of energy density in the form of bubblelike 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 grand unified theory (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 gravitational wave background from some chaotic inflation models and obtained results similar to those found by 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, i.e. the big bang, could be explored. Moreover, it could also serve in the future as a new experimental tool for testing the inflationary paradigm.

• OSTI ID: 21039105
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 77; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
AMPLITUDES
CHAOS THEORY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COSMOLOGY
ENERGY DENSITY
GRAND UNIFIED THEORY
GRAVITATIONAL RADIATION
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
GRAVITY WAVES
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SCALE MODELS
SENSITIVITY
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
TACHYONS
UNIVERSE