{
  "id": "astro-ph/0602594",
  "version": "v2",
  "published": "2006-02-27T20:17:29.000Z",
  "updated": "2006-04-08T01:53:27.000Z",
  "title": "Prospects for direct detection of primordial gravitational waves",
  "authors": [
    "Sirichai Chongchitnan",
    "George Efstathiou"
  ],
  "comment": "11 pages, 3 figures. Minor amendments. Accepted by Phys. Rev. D",
  "journal": "Phys.Rev. D73 (2006) 083511",
  "doi": "10.1103/PhysRevD.73.083511",
  "categories": [
    "astro-ph",
    "hep-th"
  ],
  "abstract": "We study the primordial gravitational wave background produced in models of single field inflation. Using the inflationary flow approach, we investigate the amplitude of gravitational wave spectrum in the frequency range 1 mHz - 1 Hz pertinent to future space-based laser interferometers. For models that satisfy the current observational constraint on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r<0.36, we derive a strict upper bound of omega_{gw}<1.6 x 10^{-15}, independent of the form of the inflationary potential. Applying, in addition, the observational constraints on the spectral index and its running, omega_{gw} is expected to be considerably lower than this bound unless the shape of the potential is finely tuned. We contrast our numerical results with those based on simple power-law extrapolation of the tensor power spectrum from CMB scales. In addition to single field inflation, we summarise a number of other possible cosmological sources of primordial gravitational waves and assess what might be learnt from direct detection experiments such as LISA, Big Bang Observer and beyond.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v2",
      "updated": "2006-04-08T01:53:27.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "subjects": [
      "98.80.Cq"
    ],
    "keywords": [
      "single field inflation",
      "primordial gravitational wave background",
      "big bang observer",
      "gravitational wave spectrum"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "publisher": "APS",
      "journal": "Phys. Rev. D"
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 11,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "inspire": 711271
    }
  }
}