Revealing the cosmic history with gravitational waves
Andreas Ringwald, Carlos Tamarit
Abstract
The characteristics of the cosmic microwave background provide circumstantial evidence that the hot radiation-dominated epoch in the early Universe was preceded by a period of inflationary expansion. Here, we show how a measurement of the stochastic gravitational wave background can reveal the cosmic history and the physical conditions during inflation, subsequent pre- and reheating, and the beginning of the hot big bang era. This is exemplified with a particularly well-motivated and predictive minimal extension of the Standard Model, which is known to provide a complete model for particle physics---up to the Planck scale---and for cosmology---back to inflation.
Topics & Concepts
PhysicsCosmic microwave backgroundInflation (cosmology)Inflationary epochGravitational waveBig Bang (financial markets)Gravitational wave backgroundCosmologyPlanckEpoch (astronomy)COSMIC cancer databaseCosmic background radiationAstrophysicsAstronomyTheoretical physicsMetric expansion of spaceDark energyQuantum mechanicsFinanceEconomicsAnisotropyStarsCosmology and Gravitation TheoriesParticle physics theoretical and experimental studiesDark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena