CMB μ distortion from primordial gravitational waves
- Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8551 (Japan)
- Department of Physics, Saga University, Saga 840-8502 (Japan)
- Department of Physics and Astrophysics, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8602 (Japan)
We propose a new mechanism of generating the μ distortion in cosmic microwave background (CMB) originated from primordial gravitational waves. Such μ distortion is generated by the damping of the temperature anisotropies through the Thomson scattering, even on scales larger than that of Silk damping. This mechanism is in sharp contrast with that from the primordial curvature (scalar) perturbations, in which the temperature anisotropies mainly decay by Silk damping effects. We estimate the size of the μ distortion from the new mechanism, which can be used to constrain the amplitude of primordial gravitational waves on smaller scales independently from the CMB anisotropies, giving more wide-range constraint on their spectral index by combining the amplitude from the CMB anisotropies.
- OSTI ID:
- 22375827
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 10; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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