Gravitational wave signal from massive gravity

Abstract

We discuss the detectability of gravitational waves with a time-dependent mass contribution, by means of the stochastic gravitational wave observations. Such a mass term typically arises in the cosmological solutions of massive gravity theories. We conduct the analysis based on a general quadratic action, and thus the results apply universally to any massive gravity theories in which the modification of general relativity appears primarily in the tensor modes. The primary manifestation of the modification in the gravitational wave spectrum is a sharp peak. The position and height of the peak carry information on the present value of the mass term, as well as the duration of the inflationary stage. We also discuss the detectability of such a gravitational wave signal using the future-planned gravitational wave observatories.