Gravitational waves from incomplete inflationary phase transitions

Joel Barir, Michael Geller, Chen Sun, Tomer Volansky

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study the observable implications of an incomplete first order phase transition during inflation. In such a phase transition, the nucleated bubbles do not percolate and instead are continuously produced until the onset of reheating. The process creates an inhomogeneity with a distinct power spectrum that depends on both the physics of the phase transition and the inflationary dynamics. Upon horizon reentry, this spectrum generates gravitational waves through nonlinear effects. This stochastic gravitational wave background is predicted to have unique signatures that may be detectable by future experiments spanning a wide frequency range. The discovery of such a gravitational wave signal would shed a light on the detailed dynamics of inflation.

Original languageEnglish
Article number115016
JournalPhysical Review D
Volume108
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2023

Funding

FundersFunder number
ERC-CoG-20151302/19, 682676 LDMThExp
US-Israeli BSF2018236
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
European Commission
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation2020220
Israel Science Foundation1862/21

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