1992/07/14 by Martin White · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Anisotropy #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Computational physics #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Gravitational wave #Gravitational-wave observatory #Inflation (cosmology) #LIGO #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quadrupole #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Universe #astro-ph #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.46.4198
published as Phys.Rev.D46:4198-4205,1992 · (LaTeX 16 pages), 2 figures not included, YCTP-P16-92
arxiv created 1992/07/14 · openalex publication_date 1992/11/15 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · arxiv updated 2016/09/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present an in-depth discussion of the production of gravitational waves from an inflationary phase that could have occurred in the early Universe, giving derivations for the resulting spectrum and energy density. We also consider the large-scale anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation coming from these waves. Assuming that the observed quadrupole anisotropy comes mostly from gravitational waves (consistent with the predictions of a flat spectrum of scalar density perturbations and the measured dipole anisotropy) we describe in detail how to derive a value for the scale of inflation of (1.5-5) \ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi 1016 GeV, which is at a particularly interesting scale for particle physics. This upper limit corresponds to a 95% confidence level upper limit on the scale of inflation assuming only that the quadrupole anisotropy from gravitational waves is not canceled by another source. Direct detection of gravitational waves produced by inflation near this scale will have to wait for the next generation of detectors.