A universal scaling law for gravitational waves induced during inflation
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866915974777667584 |
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| author | Teuscher, Martin Durrer, Ruth Martineau, Killian Barrau, Aurélien |
| author_facet | Teuscher, Martin Durrer, Ruth Martineau, Killian Barrau, Aurélien |
| contents | We consider the stochastic gravitational wave background induced by arbitrary source fields that are amplified during cosmological inflation. The associated tensor spectral index is shown to be given, under minimal assumptions, by a simple formula easy to apply in most situations of accelerated expansion. For slow-roll inflation, the induced spectrum is nearly scale invariant, with an index deviating from the standard outcome of vacuum generated gravitational waves. Remarkably, we demonstrate that scale invariance remains true regardless of the original spectrum of the source. We show how this generic approach reproduces the literature on specific models of gravitational wave primordial sources, and discuss its limitations. It provides a very practical estimation of the tensor spectral index for future models, to which subleading corrections can then be added. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_14670 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A universal scaling law for gravitational waves induced during inflation Teuscher, Martin Durrer, Ruth Martineau, Killian Barrau, Aurélien Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology We consider the stochastic gravitational wave background induced by arbitrary source fields that are amplified during cosmological inflation. The associated tensor spectral index is shown to be given, under minimal assumptions, by a simple formula easy to apply in most situations of accelerated expansion. For slow-roll inflation, the induced spectrum is nearly scale invariant, with an index deviating from the standard outcome of vacuum generated gravitational waves. Remarkably, we demonstrate that scale invariance remains true regardless of the original spectrum of the source. We show how this generic approach reproduces the literature on specific models of gravitational wave primordial sources, and discuss its limitations. It provides a very practical estimation of the tensor spectral index for future models, to which subleading corrections can then be added. |
| title | A universal scaling law for gravitational waves induced during inflation |
| topic | Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14670 |