Primordial Gravity Waves Research Articles

A demonstration of spectral level reconstruction of intrinsic B-mode power

We investigate the prospects and consequences of the spectral level reconstruction of primordial B-mode power by solving the system of linear equation. We find that this reconstruction technique may be very useful to estimate the amplitude of primordial gravity waves or more specifically, the value of tensor-to-scalar ratio. We also see that one may have very accurate reconstruction of the intrinsic B-mode power up to a few hundred multipoles which is more than sufficient to estimate the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The small-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies are not sourced by the primordial gravity waves generated during inflation. We have also demonstrated the efficiency of our algorithm by incorporating the impact of instrumental noise considering CMB-Bharat-like futuristic space mission complemented with Planck 2018 cosmology. We shall see that spectral delensing is capable of reducing the variance in lensed CMB. We do not make any conclusive comments on this as the true non-Gaussian structure and errors in the observed CMB along with the lensing by gravity waves have been ignored.

Primordial gravitational waves predictions for GW170817-compatible Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet theory

In this work we shall calculate in detail the effect of an GW170817-compatible Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet theory on the energy spectrum of the primordial gravitational waves. The spectrum is affected by two characteristics, the overall amplification/damping factor caused by the GW170817-compatible Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet theory and by the tensor spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. We shall present the formalism for studying the inflationary dynamics and post-inflationary dynamics of GW170817-compatible Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet theories for all redshifts starting from the radiation era up to the dark energy era. We exemplify our formalism by using two characteristic models, which produce viable inflationary and dark energy eras. As we demonstrate, remarkably the overall damping/amplification factor is of the order of unity, thus the GW170817-compatible Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet models affect the primordial gravitational waves energy spectrum only via their tensor spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. Both models have a blue tilted tensor spectrum, and therefore the predicted energy spectrum of the primordial gravity waves can be detectable by most of the future gravitational waves experiments, for various reheating temperatures.

Imprint of ultralight vector fields on gravitational wave propagation

We study the effects of ultralight vector field (ULVF) dark matter on gravitational-wave propagation. We find that the coherent oscillations of the vector field induce an anisotropic suppression of the gravitational-wave amplitude as compared to the $\Lambda$CDM prediction. The effect is enhanced for smaller vector field masses and peaks for modes around $k=H_0/\sqrt{a(H=m)}$. The suppression is negligible for astrophysically generated gravitational waves but could be sizeable for primordial gravity waves. We discuss the possibility of detecting such an effect on the tensor power spectrum with future CMB B-mode polarization detectors. We find that for the sensitivity of the upcoming LiteBIRD mission, the correction to the tensor power spectrum at decoupling time could be distinguishable from that of $\Lambda$CDM for ULVF masses $m\lesssim 10^{-26}$ eV and sufficiently large abundances.

A Bayesian ILC Method for CMB B-mode Posterior Estimation and Reconstruction of Primordial Gravity Wave Signal

Abstract The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation B-mode polarization signal contains the unique signature of primordial metric perturbations produced during the inflation. The separation of the weak CMB B-mode signal from strong foreground contamination in observed maps is a complex task, and proposed new-generation low-noise satellite missions compete with the weak signal level of this gravitational background. In this paper, for the first time, we employ a foreground model-independent internal linear combination (ILC) method to reconstruct the CMB B-mode signal using simulated observations over large angular scales of the sky of six frequency bands of the future-generation CMB mission Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins (PICO). We estimate the joint CMB B-mode posterior density following the interleaving Gibbs steps of the B-mode angular power spectrum and cleaned map samples using the ILC method. We extend and improve the earlier reported Bayesian ILC method to analyze weak CMB B-mode reconstruction by introducing noise-bias corrections at two stages during the ILC weight estimation. By performing 200 Monte Carlo simulations of the Bayesian ILC method, we find that our method can reconstruct the CMB signals and the joint posterior density accurately over large angular scales of the sky. We estimate the Blackwell–Rao statistics of the marginal density of the CMB B-mode angular power spectrum and use them to estimate the joint density of the tensor-to-scalar ratio r and a lensing power spectrum amplitude A lens . Using 200 Monte Carlo simulations of the delensing approach, we find that our method can achieve an unbiased detection of the primordial gravitational-wave signal r with more than 8σ significance for levels of r ≥ 0.01 for input frequency maps with realistic lensing and foregrounds with constant spectral indices.

Gravitation and the Universe from large scale-structures

Today, thanks in particular to the results of the ESA Planck mission, the concordance cosmological model appears to be the most robust to describe the evolution and content of the Universe from its early to late times. It summarizes the evolution of matter, made mainly of dark matter, from the primordial fluctuations generated by inflation around 10− 30 second after the Big Bang to galaxies and clusters of galaxies, 13.8 billion years later, and the evolution of the expansion of space, with a relative slowdown in the matter-dominated era and, since a few billion years, an acceleration powered by dark energy. But we are far from knowing the pillars of this model which are inflation, dark matter and dark energy. Comprehending these fundamental questions requires a detailed mapping of our observable Universe over the whole of cosmic time. The relic radiation provides the starting point and galaxies draw the cosmic web. JAXA’s LiteBIRD mission will map the beginning of our Universe with a crucial test for inflation (its primordial gravity waves), and the ESA Euclid mission will map the most recent half part, crucial for dark energy. The mission concept GAUSS, described in this White Paper, aims at being a mission to fully map the cosmic web up to the reionization era, linking early and late evolution, to tackle and disentangle the crucial degeneracies persisting after the Euclid era between dark matter and inflation properties, dark energy, structure growth and gravitation at large scale.

Reheating and dark radiation after fibre inflation

We study perturbative reheating at the end of fibre inflation where the inflaton is a closed string modulus with a Starobinsky-like potential. We first derive the spectral index ns and the tensor-to-scalar ratio r as a function of the number of efoldings and the parameter R which controls slow-roll breaking corrections. We then compute the inflaton couplings and decay rates into ultra-light bulk axions and visible sector fields on D7-branes wrapping the inflaton divisor. This leads to a reheating temperature of order 1010 GeV which requires 52 efoldings. Ultra-light axions contribute to dark radiation even if Δ Neff is almost negligible in the generic case where the visible sector D7-stack supports a non-zero gauge flux. If the parameter R is chosen to be small enough, ns≃ 0.965 is then in perfect agreement with current observations while r turns out to be of order r≃ 0.007. If instead the flux on the inflaton divisor is turned off, Δ Neff≲ 0.6 which, when used as a prior for Planck data, requires ns≃ 0.99. After R is fixed to obtain such a value of ns, primordial gravity waves are larger since r≃ 0.01.

Inflation from a no-scale supersymmetric SU(4)C×SU(2)L×SU(2)R model

We study inflation in a supersymmetric Pati-Salam model driven by a potential generated in the context of no-scale supergravity. The Pati-Salam gauge group $SU(4)_{c}\times{SU(2)_{L}\times{SU(2)_{R}}}$ , is supplemented with a $Z_{2} $ symmetry. Spontaneous breaking via the $SU(4)$ adjoint leads to the left-right symmetric group. Then the $SU(2)_{R}$ breaks at an intermediate scale and the inflaton is a combination of the neutral components of the $SU(2)_{R}$ doublets. We discuss various limits of the parameter space and we show that consistent solutions with the cosmological data for the a spectral index $n_{s}$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio r are found for a wide range of the parameter space of the model. Regarding the latter, which is a canonical measure of primordial gravity waves, we find that $r\sim{10^{-3}-10^{-2}}$. An alternative possibility where the adjoint scalar field $S$ has the role of the inflaton is also discussed.

Expectation of primordial gravity waves generated during inflation

The inflationary paradigm is extremely successful regarding predictions of temperature anisotropies in the CMB. However, inflation also makes predictions for a CMB B-mode polarization, which has not been detected. Moreover, the standard inflationary paradigm is unable to accommodate the evolution from the initial state, which is assumed to be symmetric, into a non-symmetric aftermath. In Phys. Rev. D 96, 101301(R), we show that the incorporation of an element capable of explaining such a transition drastically changes the prediction for the shape and size of the B-mode spectrum. In particular, employing a realistic objective collapse model in a well-defined semiclassical context, we find that, while predictions of temperature anisotropies are nor altered (with respect to standard predictions), the B-mode spectrum gets strongly suppressed--in accordance with observations. Here we present an in-depth discussion of that analysis, together with the details of the calculation.

Squeezing of scalar and tensor primordial perturbations generated by modified dispersion relations

In recent work we analyzed the evolution of primordial perturbations satisfying Planck-scale-modified dispersion relations and showed that there is no cosmological "squeezing" in the critical model that produces perturbations with a scale invariant spectrum. Nevertheless, the perturbations reenter the horizon as standing waves with the correct temporal phase because of the late-time decay of the momentum mode. Here we shed light on the absence of primordial squeezing by re-examining the problem in the dual rainbow frame, where $c$ is set to 1, shifting the varying $c$ effects elsewhere. In this frame gravity switches off at sub-Planckian wavelengths, so that the fluctuations behave as if they were in Minkowski spacetime. This is ultimately why they are not squeezed. However, away from the critical model squeezing does occur if the fluctuations spectrum is red, as is the case for scalar perturbations. Should the primordial gravity waves have a blue spectrum, we predict that they might not reenter the horizon as standing waves, because the momentum mode would be enhanced in the primordial phase.

Developments of Highly Multiplexed, Multi-chroic Pixels for Balloon-Borne Platforms

We present our work to develop and characterize low thermal conductance bolometers that are part of sinuous antenna multi-chroic pixels (SAMP). We use longer, thinner and meandered bolometer legs to achieve 9 pW/K thermal conductance bolometers. We also discuss the development of inductor-capacitor chips operated at 4 K to extend the multiplexing factor of the frequency domain multiplexing to 105, an increase of 60% compared to the factor currently demonstrated for this readout system. This technology development is motivated by EBEX-IDS, a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to characterize the polarization of foregrounds and to detect the primordial gravity waves through their B-mode signature on the polarization of the cosmic microwave background. EBEX-IDS will operate 20,562 transition edge sensor bolometers spread over 7 frequency bands between 150 and 360 GHz. Balloon and satellite platforms enable observations at frequencies inaccessible from the ground and with higher instantaneous sensitivity. This development improves the readiness of the SAMP and frequency domain readout technologies for future satellite applications.

Why Flat Space Cosmology Is Superior to Standard Inflationary Cosmology

Following recent Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations of global spatial flatness, only two types of viable cosmological models remain: inflationary models which almost instantaneously attain cosmic flatness following the Big Bang; and non-inflationary models which are spatially flat from inception. Flat Space Cosmology (FSC) is the latter type of cosmological model by virtue of assumptions corresponding to the Hawking-Penrose conjecture that a universe expanding from a singularity could be modeled like a time-reversed black hole. Since current inflationary models have been criticized for their lack of falsifiability, the numerous falsifiable predictions and key features of the FSC model are herein contrasted with standard inflationary cosmology. For the reasons given, the FSC model is shown to be superior to standard cosmology in the following eleven categories: Predictions Pertaining to Primordial Gravity Waves; Cosmic Dawn Early Surprises; Predicting the Magnitude of CMB Temperature Anisotropy; Predicting the Value of Equation of State Term w; Predicting the Hubble Parameter Value; Quantifiable Entropy and the Entropic Arrow of Time; Clues to the Nature of Gravity, Dark Energy and Dark Matter; The Cosmological Constant Problem; Quantum Cosmology; Dark Matter and Dark Energy Quantitation; Requirements for New Physics.

Reassessing the link betweenB-modes and inflation

We reevaluate the predictions of inflation regarding primordial gravity waves, which should appear as B-modes in the CMB, in light of the fact that the standard inflationary paradigm is unable to account for the transition from an initially symmetric state into a non-symmetric outcome. We show that the incorporation of an element capable of explaining such a transition dramatically alters the prediction for the shape and size of the B-mode spectrum. In particular, we find that by adapting a realistic objective collapse model to the situation at hand, the B-mode spectrum gets strongly suppressed with respect to the standard prediction. We conclude that the failure to detect B-modes in the CMB does not rule-out the simplest inflationary models.

μ -hybrid inflation with low reheat temperature and observable gravity waves

In $\mu$-hybrid inflation a nonzero inflaton vacuum expectation value induced by supersymmetry breaking is proportional to the gravitino mass $m_{3/2}$, which can be exploited to resolve the minimal supersymmetric standard model $\mu$ problem. We show how this scenario can be successfully implemented with $m_{3/2} \sim 1-100$ TeV and reheat temperature as low as $10^6$ GeV by employing a minimal renormalizable superpotential coupled with a well defined non-minimal K\"ahler potential. The tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$, a canonical measure of primordial gravity waves in most cases is less than or of the order of $10^{-6}-10^{-3}$.

Two- and Three-Dimensional Probes of Parity in Primordial Gravity Waves.

We show that three-dimensional information is critical to discerning the effects of parity violation in the primordial gravity-wave background. If present, helical gravity waves induce parity-violating correlations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) between parity-odd polarization B modes and parity-even temperature anisotropies (T) or polarization E modes. Unfortunately, EB correlations are much weaker than would be naively expected, which we show is due to an approximate symmetry resulting from the two-dimensional nature of the CMB. The detectability of parity-violating correlations is exacerbated by the fact that the handedness of individual modes cannot be discerned in the two-dimensional CMB, leading to a noise contribution from scalar matter perturbations. In contrast, the tidal imprints of primordial gravity waves fossilized into the large-scale structure of the Universe are a three-dimensional probe of parity violation. Using such fossils the handedness of gravity waves may be determined on a mode-by-mode basis, permitting future surveys to probe helicity at the percent level if the amplitude of primordial gravity waves is near current observational upper limits.

Quantum stress tensor fluctuations and primordial gravity waves

We examine the effect of the stress tensor of a quantum matter field, such as the electromagnetic field, on the spectrum of primordial gravity waves expected in inflationary cosmology. We find that the net effect is a small reduction in the power spectrum, especially at higher frequencies, but which has a different form from that described by the usual spectral index. Thus this effect has a characteristic signature, and is in principle observable. The net effect is a sum of two contributions, one of which is due to quantum fluctuations of the matter field stress tensor. The other is a quantum correction to the graviton field due to coupling to the expectation value of this stress tensor. Both contributions are sensitive to initial conditions in the very early universe, so this effect has the potential to act as a probe of these initial conditions.

Effective field theory of dark matter from membrane inflationary paradigm

In this article, we have studied the cosmological and particle physics constraints on dark matter relic abundance from effective field theory of inflation using tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$), in case of Randall-Sundrum single membrane (RSII) paradigm. Using semi-analytical approach we establish a direct connection between the dark matter relic abundance ($\Omega_{DM}h^2$) and primordial gravity waves ($r$), which establishes a precise connection between inflation and generation of dark matter within the framework of effective field theory in RSII membrane. Further assuming the UV completeness of the effective field theory perfectly holds good in the prescribed framework, we have explicitly shown that the membrane tension, $\sigma$, bulk mass scale $M_5$, and cosmological constant $\tilde{\Lambda}_{5}$, in RSII membrane plays the most significant role to establish the connection between dark matter and inflation, using which we have studied the features of various mediator mass scale suppressed effective field theory "relevant operators" induced from the localized $s$, $t$ and $u$ channel interactions. Taking a completely model independent approach, we have studied an exhaustive list of tree-level Feynman diagrams for dark matter annihilation within the prescribed setup and to check the consistency of the obtained results, further we apply the constraints as obtained from recently observed Planck 2015 data and Planck+BICEP2+Keck Array joint datasets. Using all of these derived results we have shown that to satisfy the bound on, $\Omega_{DM}h^2=0.1187\pm 0.0017$, as from Planck 2015 data, it is possible to put further stringent constraint on $r$ within, $0.01\leq r\leq 0.12$, for thermally averaged annihilation cross-section of dark matter, $\langle \sigma v\rangle\approx {\cal O}(10^{-28}-10^{-27}){\rm cm^3 /s}$, which are very useful to constrain various membrane inflationary models.

Primordial gravity wave background anisotropies

We consider the primordial gravity wave background produced by inflation. We compute the small anisotropy produced by the primordial scalar fluctuations.

Planckintermediate results

The quest for a B-mode imprint from primordial gravity waves on the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) requires the characterization of foreground polarization from Galactic dust. We present a statistical study of the filamentary structure of the 353 GHz Planck Stokes maps at high Galactic latitude, relevant to the study of dust emission as a polarized foreground to the CMB. We filter the intensity and polarization maps to isolate filaments in the range of angular scales where the power asymmetry between E-modes and B-modes is observed. Using the Smoothed Hessian Major Axis Filament Finder (SMAFF), we identify 259 filaments at high Galactic latitude, with lengths larger or equal to 2° (corresponding to 3.5 pc in length for a typical distance of 100 pc). Thesefilaments show a preferred orientation parallel to the magnetic field projected onto the plane of the sky, derived from their polarization angles. We present mean maps of the filaments in Stokes I, Q, U, E, and B, computed by stacking individual images rotated to align the orientations of the filaments. Combining the stacked images and the histogram of relative orientations, we estimate the mean polarization fraction of the filaments to be 11%. Furthermore, we show that the correlation between the filaments and the magnetic field orientations may account for the E and B asymmetry and the CℓTE/CℓEE ratio, reported in the power spectra analysis of the Planck353 GHz polarization maps. Future models of the dust foreground for CMB polarization studies will need to take into account the observed correlation between the dust polarization and the structure of interstellar matter.

Constraining brane inflationary magnetic field from cosmoparticle physics after Planck

In this article, I have studied the cosmological and particle physics constraints on a generic class of large field ($|\Delta\phi|>M_{p}$) and small field ($|\Delta\phi<M_{p}$) models of brane inflationary magnetic field from: (1) tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$), (2) reheating, (3) leptogenesis and (4) baryogenesis in case of Randall-Sundrum single braneworld gravity (RSII) framework. I also establish a direct connection between the magnetic field at the present epoch ($B_{0}$) and primordial gravity waves ($r$), which give a precise estimate of non-vanishing CP asymmetry ($\epsilon_{CP}$) in leptogenesis and baryon asymmetry ($\eta_{B}$) in baryogenesis scenario respectively. Further assuming the conformal invariance to be restored after inflation in the framework of RSII, I have explicitly shown that the requirement of the sub-dominant feature of large scale coherent magnetic field after inflation gives two fold non-trivial characteristic constraints- on equation of state parameter ($w$) and the corresponding energy scale during reheating ($\rho^{1/4}_{rh}$) epoch. Hence giving the proposal for avoiding the contribution of back-reaction from the magnetic field I have established a bound on the generic reheating characteristic parameter ($R_{rh}$) and its rescaled version ($R_{sc}$), to achieve large scale magnetic field within the prescribed setup and further apply the CMB constraints as obtained from recently observed Planck 2015 data and Planck+BICEP2+Keck Array joint constraints. Using all these derived results I have shown that it is possible to put further stringent constraints on various classes of large and small field inflationary models to break the degeneracy between various cosmological parameters within the framework of RSII. Finally, I have studied the consequences from two specific models of brane inflation- monomial and hilltop.

Weakly coupled gravity beyond general relativity

We explore four-dimensional (4D) weakly coupled gravity beyond general relativity in an on-shell language, focusing on the graviton three-point vertex. This admits a novel structure which can be attributed to a term cubic in the Riemann tensor. We consider a generalization of the Shapiro time delay experiment that involves polarized gravitons and show that the new vertex leads to causality violation. Fixing the problem demands the inclusion of an infinite tower of massive higher spin states. Perturbative string theory provides an example of this phenomenon, the only known so far. Interestingly enough, the same argument being applied to inflation suggests that stringy signatures may be hidden in the non-Gaussianities of the primordial gravity wave spectrum.