Gravitational waves from stochastic scalar fluctuations

Ebadi, Reza; Kumar, Soubhik; McCune, Amara; Tai, Hanwen; Wang, Lian-Tao

doi:10.1103/physrevd.109.083519

Title: Gravitational waves from stochastic scalar fluctuations

Journal Article · 15 April 2024 · Physical Review. D.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.109.083519 · OSTI ID:2447945

Ebadi, Reza ^[1];

^[2];

^[3];

^[4]; Wang, Lian-Tao ^[4]

Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)
Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)

Here, we present a novel mechanism for gravitational wave generation in the early Universe. Light spectator scalar fields during inflation can acquire a blue-tilted power spectrum due to stochastic effects. We show that this effect can lead to large curvature perturbations at small scales (induced by the spectator field fluctuations) while maintaining the observed, slightly red-tilted curvature perturbations at large cosmological scales (induced by the inflaton fluctuations). Along with other observational signatures, such as enhanced dark matter substructure, large curvature perturbations can induce a stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). The predicted strength of SGWB in our scenario, Ω_GW⁢ℎ²≃10^-20-10^-15, can be observed with future detectors, operating between 10^-5 Hz and 10 Hz. We note that, in order to accommodate the newly reported NANOGrav observation, one could consider the same class of spectator models. At the same time, one would need to go beyond the simple benchmark considered here and consider a regime in which a misalignment contribution is also important.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Office of Workforce Development for Teachers & Scientists (WDTS); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; SC0014664; SC0013642

OSTI ID:: 2447945

Journal Information:: Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 109; ISSN 2470-0010

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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