Signature of nonminimal scalar-gravity coupling with an early matter domination on the power spectrum of gravitational waves

Abstract

The signal strength of primordial gravitational waves experiencing an epoch of early scalar domination, due to an oscillating scalar field, is reduced with respect to radiation domination. In this paper, we demonstrate that the specific pattern of this reduction is sensitive to the coupling between the dominant field and gravity. When this coupling is zero, the impact of early-matter domination on gravitational waves is solely attributed to the alteration of the Hubble parameter and the scale factor. In the presence of nonzero couplings, on the other hand, the evolution of primordial gravitational waves is directly affected as well, resulting in a distinct steplike feature in the power spectrum of the gravitational wave as a function of frequency. This feature serves as a smoking gun signature of this model. Although the aforementioned results are obtained numerically, we also provide an analytical expression of the power spectrum to illustrate its dependence on the model parameters and initial conditions. Furthermore, we provide analytical relations that specify the frequency interval in which the step occurs. We compare the analytical estimates with numerical analysis and show they match well. Published by the American Physical Society 2024