Abstract
We show that axion-like particles that only couple to invisible dark photons can generate visible B-mode signals around the reionization epoch. The axion field starts rolling shortly before reionization, resulting in a tachyonic instability for the dark photons. This generates an exponential growth of the dark photon quanta sourcing both scalar metric modes and gravitational waves that leave an imprint on the reionized baryons. The tensor modes modify the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization at reionization, generating visible B-mode signatures for the next generation of CMB experiments for parameter ranges that satisfy the current experimental constraints.
Highlights
The discovery of gravitational waves (GW) at LIGO [1] and VIRGO [2] has motivated the search for other possible GW sources beyond the mergers of astrophysical objects
The cosmological GW signals can have a wide range of possible frequencies: interferometer experiments can detect GWs with frequencies above ∼10−5 Hz [7,8,9,10], and lower frequency signals down to ∼10−8 Hz are relevant for pulsar timing experiments [11,12]; if GWs have frequencies lower than ∼10−15 Hz, we can search for the B mode polarization signals from GW imprints on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) [13]
We propose a new source for B mode generating GWs produced by axionlike particles (ALPs)
Summary
The discovery of gravitational waves (GW) at LIGO [1] and VIRGO [2] has motivated the search for other possible GW sources beyond the mergers of astrophysical objects. The cosmological GW signals can have a wide range of possible frequencies: interferometer experiments can detect GWs with frequencies above ∼10−5 Hz [7,8,9,10], and lower frequency signals down to ∼10−8 Hz are relevant for pulsar timing experiments [11,12]; if GWs have frequencies lower than ∼10−15 Hz, we can search for the B mode polarization signals from GW imprints on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) [13].
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