1999/09/30 by Michele Maggiore · 13 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical interferometer #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #COSMIC cancer database #Cosmic string #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Gravitation #Gravitational wave #Gravitational wave background #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #String (physics) #Universe #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0370-1573(99)00102-7
published as Phys.Rept. 331 (2000) 283-367 · 99 pages, Latex, 17 figures. To appear in Physics Report. v4: conceptual changes in sect. 7.4
arxiv created 2000/02/06 · openalex publication_date 2000/07/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Gravitational-wave experiments with interferometers and with resonant masses can search for stochastic backgrounds of gravitational waves of cosmological origin. We review both experimental and theoretical aspects of the search for these backgrounds. We give a pedagogical derivation of the various relations that characterize the response of a detector to a stochastic background. We discuss the sensitivities of the large interferometers under constructions (LIGO, VIRGO, GEO600, TAMA300, AIGO) or planned (Avdanced LIGO, LISA) and of the presently operating resonant bars, and we give the sensitivities for various two-detectors correlations. We examine the existing limits on the energy density in gravitational waves from nucleosynthesis, COBE and pulsars, and their effects on theoretical predictions. We discuss general theoretical principles for order-of-magnitude estimates of cosmological production mechanisms, and then we turn to specific theoretical predictions from inflation, string cosmology, phase transitions, cosmic strings and other mechanisms. We finally compare with the stochastic backgrounds of astrophysical origin.