Quantized gravitational wave perturbations in Robertson-Walker universes

Journal Article · Thu Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 1977 · Phys. Rev., D; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.16.1601· OSTI ID:5351591

Ford, L H; Parker, L

We consider the theory of quantized gravitational wave perturbations in the three types of Robertson-Walker universes. In a gauge analogous to the Coulomb gauge in electrodynamics it is possible to identify and quantize the independent degrees of freedom of the graviton field. The resulting theory is equivalent to that for a pair of massless, minimally coupled scalar fields in the same background space-time. As an application of the formalism, we calculate the spectrum of gravitons produced by a power-law expansion of the universe and show that it has no divergences.

• Research Organization: Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201
• OSTI ID: 5351591
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev., D; (United States), Vol. 16:6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
PERTURBATION THEORY
ELECTRODYNAMICS
ENERGY-MOMENTUM TENSOR
GRAVITONS
INFRARED DIVERGENCES
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
METRICS
RIEMANN SPACE
SCALAR FIELDS
SPACE-TIME
UNIVERSE
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FUNCTIONS
GRAVITATIONAL RADIATION
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
POSTULATED PARTICLES
RADIATIONS
SPACE
TENSORS
640106* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Cosmology