Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. IV: probing inflation with gravitational waves

Journal Article · Thu Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 2016 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/12/026· OSTI ID:22679357

Bartolo, Nicola; Guzzetti, Maria Chiara; Liguori, Michele; Matarrese, Sabino ^[1]; others, and

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1. Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia ''G. Galilei'', Università degli Studi di Padova, via Marzolo 8, I-35131, Padova (Italy)

We investigate the potential for the LISA space-based interferometer to detect the stochastic gravitational wave background produced from different mechanisms during inflation. Focusing on well-motivated scenarios, we study the resulting contributions from particle production during inflation, inflationary spectator fields with varying speed of sound, effective field theories of inflation with specific patterns of symmetry breaking and models leading to the formation of primordial black holes. The projected sensitivities of LISA are used in a model-independent way for various detector designs and configurations. We demonstrate that LISA is able to probe these well-motivated inflationary scenarios beyond the irreducible vacuum tensor modes expected from any inflationary background.

• OSTI ID: 22679357
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 2016; ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
DESIGN
FIELD THEORIES
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
INTERFEROMETERS
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
SENSITIVITY
SOUND WAVES
SPACE
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
SYMMETRY BREAKING
VELOCITY