http://arxiv.org/abs/1605.06364
A direct detection of primordial gravitational waves is the ultimate probe for any inflation model. While current CMB bounds predict the generic scale-invariant gravitational wave spectrum from slow-roll inflation to be below the reach of upcoming gravitational wave interferometers, this prospect may dramatically change if the inflaton is a pseudoscalar. In this case, a coupling to any abelian gauge field leads to a tachyonic instability for the latter and hence to a new source of gravitational waves, directly related to the dynamics of inflation. In this contribution we discuss how this setup enables the upcoming gravitational wave interferometers advanced LIGO/VIRGO and eLISA to probe the microphysics of inflation, distinguishing between different universality classes of single-field slow-roll inflation models. We find that the prime candidate for an early detection is a Starobinsky-like model.
V. Domcke
Mon, 23 May 16
34/55
Comments: 4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the conference proceedings of the 51st Rencontres de Moriond, Cosmology Session, 19-26 March 2016 in La Thuile, Italy. Based on arXiv:1603.01287
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