Enhanced primordial gravitational waves from a stiff post-inflationary era due to an oscillating inflaton

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Hauptverfasser: Chen, Chao, Dimopoulos, Konstantinos, Eröncel, Cem, Ghoshal, Anish
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Chen, Chao
Dimopoulos, Konstantinos
Eröncel, Cem
Ghoshal, Anish
author_facet Chen, Chao
Dimopoulos, Konstantinos
Eröncel, Cem
Ghoshal, Anish
contents We investigate two classes of inflationary models, which lead to a stiff period after inflation that boosts the signal of primordial gravitational waves (GWs). In both families of models studied, we consider an oscillating scalar condensate, which when far away from the minimum it is overdamped by a warped kinetic term, a la $α$-attractors. This leads to successful inflation. The oscillating condensate is in danger of becoming fragmented by resonant effects when non-linearities take over. Consequently, the stiff phase cannot be prolonged enough to enhance primordial GWs at frequencies observable in the near future for low orders of the envisaged scalar potential. However, this is not the case for a higher-order scalar potential. Indeed, we show that this case results in a boosted GW spectrum that overlaps with future observations without generating too much GW radiation to de-stabilise Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. For example, taking $α={\cal O}(1)$, we find that the GW signal can be safely enhanced up to $Ω_{\rm GW}(f)\sim 10^{-11}$ at frequency $f\sim 10^2\,$Hz, which will be observable by the Einstein Telescope (ET). Our mechanism ends up with a characteristic GW spectrum, which if observed, can lead to the determination of the inflation energy scale, the reheating temperature and the shape (steepness) of the scalar potential around the minimum.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_01679
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Enhanced primordial gravitational waves from a stiff post-inflationary era due to an oscillating inflaton
Chen, Chao
Dimopoulos, Konstantinos
Eröncel, Cem
Ghoshal, Anish
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
We investigate two classes of inflationary models, which lead to a stiff period after inflation that boosts the signal of primordial gravitational waves (GWs). In both families of models studied, we consider an oscillating scalar condensate, which when far away from the minimum it is overdamped by a warped kinetic term, a la $α$-attractors. This leads to successful inflation. The oscillating condensate is in danger of becoming fragmented by resonant effects when non-linearities take over. Consequently, the stiff phase cannot be prolonged enough to enhance primordial GWs at frequencies observable in the near future for low orders of the envisaged scalar potential. However, this is not the case for a higher-order scalar potential. Indeed, we show that this case results in a boosted GW spectrum that overlaps with future observations without generating too much GW radiation to de-stabilise Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. For example, taking $α={\cal O}(1)$, we find that the GW signal can be safely enhanced up to $Ω_{\rm GW}(f)\sim 10^{-11}$ at frequency $f\sim 10^2\,$Hz, which will be observable by the Einstein Telescope (ET). Our mechanism ends up with a characteristic GW spectrum, which if observed, can lead to the determination of the inflation energy scale, the reheating temperature and the shape (steepness) of the scalar potential around the minimum.
title Enhanced primordial gravitational waves from a stiff post-inflationary era due to an oscillating inflaton
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.01679