Measuring the primordial curvature perturbations from the scalar induced gravitational waves

TL;DR

This paper constrains primordial curvature perturbations by analyzing scalar induced gravitational waves, utilizing current and future gravitational wave observations to refine cosmological parameters and the scalar power spectrum.

Contribution

It introduces new constraints on the primordial scalar power spectrum using gravitational wave data, including forecasts for SKA and analyses of existing PTA and FAST data.

Findings

SKA improves constraints on scalar power spectrum parameters.

Mean scalar amplitude and spectral index shift to lower values with SKA data.

Current PTA and FAST data are consistent with CMB+BAO constraints.

Abstract

The scalar induced gravitational waves are produced from primordial curvature perturbations in the second order of perturbations. We constrain the fractional energy density of scalar induced gravitational waves from gravitational waves observations. If there is no detection of the scalar induced gravitational waves, the fractional energy density of scalar induced gravitational waves is constrained by some upper limits. Depends on these upper limits, we can obtain the constraints on the power spectrum of the primordial curvature perturbations. For a power-law scalar power spectrum, the constraints on the power spectrum are affected by adding the upper limit of scalar induced gravitational waves from Square Kilometer Array (SKA). In the standard model, the mean values of the scalar amplitude and the spectral index shift to lower values when SKA is added to the combination of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) datasets, namely $\ln(10^{10}A_s)=3.038\pm0.013$ and $n_s=0.9589^{+0.0021}_{-0.0011}$ at $68\%$ confidence level. We also consider the effects of the existing ground-based gravitational-wave detectors, the existing Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) and Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), while the constraints from CMB+BAO datasets are totally within their upper limits of scalar induced gravitational waves. Furthermore, we characterize the scalar fluctuation spectrum in terms of the spectral index $n_s$ and its first two derivatives. We calculate corresponding power spectrum of scalar induced gravitational waves theoretically and give the constraints on the running of the spectral index and the running of the running of the spectral index.