Gravitational wave generation in power-law inflationary models

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gravitational wave production during power-law inflation, highlighting how different frequency ranges can reveal details about the inflationary period and subsequent thermalization, emphasizing the importance of future high-frequency detectors.

Contribution

It introduces a method to calculate gravitational wave spectra in power-law inflation models and discusses the potential of high-frequency detectors to probe early universe physics.

Findings

Gravitational wave spectrum spans from 10^(-5) to 10^5 Hz and GHz range.

Frequency analysis provides insights into inflation and thermalization.

High-frequency detectors are crucial for future observational efforts.

Abstract

We investigate the generation of gravitational waves in power-law inflationary models. The energy spectrum of the gravitational waves is calculated using the method of continuous Bogoliubov coefficients. We show that, by looking at the interval of frequencies between 10^(-5) and 10^5 Hz and also at the GHz range, important information can be obtained, both about the inflationary period itself and about the thermalization regime between the end of inflation and the beginning of the radiation-dominated era. We thus deem the development of gravitational wave detectors, covering the MHz/GHz range of frequencies, to be an important task for the future.