Imprint of gravitational waves on the cosmic microwave background

Journal Article · Mon Jul 19 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · Physical Review Letters; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.71.324· OSTI ID:6280563

Crittenden, R; Bond, J R; Davis, R L; Efstathiou, G; Steinhardt, P J ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 (United States) Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A7 (Canada) Department of Astrophysics, Oxford University, Oxford, England OX1 3RH ( )

Long-wavelength gravitational waves can induce significant temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background. Distinguishing this from anisotropy induced by energy density fluctuations is critical for testing inflationary cosmology and theories of large-scale structure formation. We describe full radiative transport calculations of the two contributions and show that they differ dramatically at angular scales below a few degrees. We show how anisotropy experiments probing large- and small-angular scales can combine to distinguish the imprint due to gravitational waves.

• OSTI ID: 6280563
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review Letters; (United States) Vol. 71:3; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661310* -- Relativity & Gravitation-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANISOTROPY
BACKGROUND RADIATION
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ENERGY DENSITY
FLUCTUATIONS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
RADIATIONS
VARIATIONS