Quantized gravitational wave perturbations in Robertson-Walker universes

Journal Article · Thu Sep 15 04:00:00 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), Journal Name: Phys. Rev., D; (United States) Vol. 16:6; ISSN PRVDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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