Revisiting the ultraviolet tail of the primordial gravitational wave
Shi Pi, Misao Sasaki, Ao Wang, Jianing Wang
Abstract
High-frequency primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) with wave numbers larger than the Hubble parameter at the end of inflation are originated from the ultraviolet (UV) modes, which are never stretched out of the horizon. Such a UV tail of the PGW energy spectrum has a spurious logarithmic divergence. We study the origin of such a divergence, and find that it comes from the instantaneous inflation-to-postinflation transition, which can be removed by considering a finite duration. For the first time, we obtain a semianalytical expression for the PGW energy spectrum. We find that the UV tail decays exponentially, while the decay rate depends solely on the transition rate. When there is a stiff postinflationary stage, the enhanced PGW displays a characteristic spectral shape of power-law increasing and exponential decaying. We propose a fitting formula which can be used for signal searching.