1999/06/30 by B. Allen, Bruce Allen, Éanna É. Flanagan +3 · 57 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Classical mechanics #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Detector #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Gravitational wave #Gravitational wave background #Gravitational-wave observatory #Inflation (cosmology) #Mathematics #Optics #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Signature (topology) #Statistical physics #Statistics #Stochastic process #Theoretical physics #Universe #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.61.024024
published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 61(2) (American Physical Society) · 17 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex, psfig, to be submitted to PRD, minor revisions - appendix B clarified, corrected typos, added references
arxiv created 1999/07/01 · openalex publication_date 1999/12/27 · arxiv updated 2016/08/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Grishchuk has shown that the stochastic background of gravitational waves produced by an inflationary phase in the early Universe has an unusual property: it is not a stationary Gaussian random process. Because of squeezing, the phases of the different waves are correlated in a deterministic way, arising from the process of parametric amplification that created them. The resulting random process is Gaussian but non-stationary. This provides a unique signature that could in principle distinguish a background created by inflation from stationary stochastic backgrounds created by other types of processes. We address the question: could this signature be observed with a gravitational wave detector? Sadly, the answer appears to be no: an experiment which could distinguish the non-stationary behavior would have to last approximately the age of the Universe at the time of measurement. This rules out direct detection by ground and space based gravitational wave detectors, but not indirect detections via the electromagnetic cosmic microwave background radiation.