Constraining primordial tensor features with the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that the stochastic background of gravitational waves on cosmological scales follows an almost scale-independent power spectrum, as generically predicted by the inflationary paradigm. However, it is not inconceivable that the spectrum could have strongly scale-dependent features, generated, e.g., via transient dynamics of spectator axion-gauge fields during inflation. Using the temperature and polarisation maps from the Planck and BICEP/Keck datasets, we search for such features, taking the example of a log-normal bump in the primordial tensor spectrum at CMB scales. We do not find any evidence for the existence of bump-like tensor features at present, but demonstrate that future CMB experiments such as LiteBIRD and CMB-S4 will greatly improve our prospects of determining the amplitude, location and width of such a bump. We also highlight the role of delensing in constraining these features at angular scales ℓ ≳ 100.