Stochastic background of gravitational waves from cosmological sources

TL;DR

This paper reviews how the stochastic background of gravitational waves from early universe sources can serve as a probe for cosmological energy scales, highlighting various potential observable signals.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of primordial gravitational wave sources and discusses their potential detectability across different GW detectors.

Findings

Different GW detectors probe various early universe energy scales

Examples of cosmological sources producing observable GW signals

General properties of primordial GW backgrounds

Abstract

Gravitational waves (GW) can constitute a unique probe of the primordial universe. In many cases, the characteristic frequency of the emitted GW is directly related to the energy scale at which the GW source is operating in the early universe. Consequently, different GW detectors can probe different energy scales in the evolution of the universe. After a general introduction on the properties of a GW stochastic background of primordial origin, some examples of cosmological sources are presented, which may lead to observable GW signals.