Induced gravitational waves: the effect of first order tensor perturbations

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Picard, Raphael, Malik, Karim A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Picard, Raphael
Malik, Karim A.
author_facet Picard, Raphael
Malik, Karim A.
contents Scalar induced gravitational waves contribute to the cosmological gravitational wave background. They can be related to the primordial density power spectrum produced towards the end of inflation and therefore are a convenient new tool to constrain models of inflation. These waves are sourced by terms quadratic in perturbations and hence appear at second order in cosmological perturbation theory. While the focus of research so far was on purely scalar source terms we also study the effect of including first order tensor perturbations as an additional source. This gives rise to two additional source terms: a term quadratic in the tensor perturbations and a cross term involving mixed scalar and tensor perturbations. We present full analytical expressions for the spectral density of these new source terms and discuss their general behaviour. To illustrate the generation mechanism we study two toy models containing a peak on small scales. For these models we show that the scalar-tensor contribution becomes non-negligible compared to the scalar-scalar contribution on smaller scales. We also consider implications for future gravitational wave surveys.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_14513
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Induced gravitational waves: the effect of first order tensor perturbations
Picard, Raphael
Malik, Karim A.
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Scalar induced gravitational waves contribute to the cosmological gravitational wave background. They can be related to the primordial density power spectrum produced towards the end of inflation and therefore are a convenient new tool to constrain models of inflation. These waves are sourced by terms quadratic in perturbations and hence appear at second order in cosmological perturbation theory. While the focus of research so far was on purely scalar source terms we also study the effect of including first order tensor perturbations as an additional source. This gives rise to two additional source terms: a term quadratic in the tensor perturbations and a cross term involving mixed scalar and tensor perturbations. We present full analytical expressions for the spectral density of these new source terms and discuss their general behaviour. To illustrate the generation mechanism we study two toy models containing a peak on small scales. For these models we show that the scalar-tensor contribution becomes non-negligible compared to the scalar-scalar contribution on smaller scales. We also consider implications for future gravitational wave surveys.
title Induced gravitational waves: the effect of first order tensor perturbations
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.14513