Oscillations in the stochastic gravitational wave background from sharp features and particle production during inflation

TL;DR

This paper explores how sharp features and particle production during inflation create characteristic oscillations in the scalar and gravitational wave spectra, potentially detectable by future observatories.

Contribution

It demonstrates that sharp features during inflation induce oscillatory patterns in the gravitational wave background, linking primordial inflationary dynamics to observable signals.

Findings

Oscillations in the gravitational wave spectrum with ~10% modulations.

Frequency of oscillations determined by inflationary feature scale.

Explicit realization in multifield inflation with sharp turns.

Abstract

We identify a characteristic pattern in the scalar-induced stochastic gravitational wave background from particle production during inflation. If particle production is sufficiently efficient, the scalar power spectrum exhibits $\mathcal{O}(1)$ oscillations periodic in $k$, characteristic of a sharp feature, with an exponentially enhanced envelope. We systematically study the properties of the induced spectrum of gravitational waves sourced after inflation and find that this inherits the periodic structure in $k$, resulting in a peak in the gravitational wave energy density spectrum with $\mathcal{O}(10 \%)$ modulations. The frequency of the oscillation in the scalar power spectrum is determined by the scale of the feature during inflation and in turn sets the frequency of modulations in the gravitational wave signal. We present an explicit realisation of this phenomenon in the framework of multifield inflation, in the form of a strong sharp turn in the inflationary trajectory. The resulting stochastic background is potentially detectable in future gravitational wave observatories, and considerations of backreaction and perturbativity can be used to constrain the parameter space from the theoretical side. Our work motivates more extensive research linking primordial features to observable properties of the stochastic background of gravitational waves, and dedicated development in data analysis for their detection.