Thermal inflation and the gravitational wave background

Journal Article · Thu May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2008/05/013· OSTI ID:22156626

Easther, Richard; Giblin, Jr, John T ^[1]; Lim, Eugene A ^[2]; Park, Wan-Il

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1. Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520 (United States)
2. ISCAP and Physics Department, Columbia University, NY 10027 (United States)

We consider the impact of thermal inflation-a short, secondary period of inflation that can arise in supersymmetric scenarios-on the stochastic gravitational wave background. We show that while the primordial inflationary gravitational wave background is essentially unchanged at cosmic microwave background scales, it is massively diluted at solar system scales and would be unobservable by a Big Bang Observer (BBO) style experiment. Conversely, bubble collisions at the end of thermal inflation can generate a new stochastic background. We calculate the likely properties of the bubbles created during this phase transition, and show that the expected amplitude and frequency of this signal would fall within the BBO range.

• OSTI ID: 22156626
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Journal Issue: 05 Vol. 2008; ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
AMPLITUDES
COLLISIONS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
RELICT RADIATION
SOLAR SYSTEM
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
SUPERSYMMETRY