Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves as a Benchmark for Extended Theories of Gravity

TL;DR

This paper discusses how extended theories of gravity, specifically f(R) models, can influence the cosmological background of gravitational waves, providing a way to test these theories through gravitational wave observations.

Contribution

It introduces a parametric approach using f(R) gravity to control gravitational wave evolution and production in the early Universe, offering a new framework for testing gravity theories.

Findings

f(R) gravity models can modify the gravitational wave background

The approach allows tuning of gravitational wave production mechanisms

Potential for gravitational wave observations to constrain extended gravity theories

Abstract

The cosmological background of gravitational waves can be tuned by Extended Theories of Gravity. In particular, it can be shown that assuming a generic function f(R) of the Ricci scalar R gives a parametric approach to control the evolution and the production mechanism of gravitational waves in the early Universe.