Tensor Fluctuations in the Early Universe

TL;DR

This paper compares tensor and scalar fluctuations in inflationary and non-inflationary early universe models, suggesting that future CMB B-mode polarization measurements could distinguish between these scenarios.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of scalar and tensor mode generation in inflationary versus non-inflationary models, highlighting observational signatures.

Findings

Upcoming CMB observations can differentiate models based on B-mode polarization.

Tensor modes depend on quantum gravitational effects, potentially being unmeasurable if gravity is classical.

Non-detection of B-modes does not definitively rule out inflation.

Abstract

In standard inflationary cosmology, scalar and tensor perturbations grew as the Universe expanded and froze when their wavelengths exceeded the Hubble horizon, producing a tell-tale signature in the fluctuation spectrum and amplitude of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). But there are now very good reasons to examine whether structure formation could also have begun via the seeding of quantum fluctuations in a non-inflationary field. In this Letter, we study and compare the scalar and tensor modes produced in these two scenarios, and demonstrate that upcoming observations to measure the B-mode polarization of the CMB may be able to differentiate between them. Whereas both scalar and tensor modes should be observable if the field was inflationary, only scalar modes would be present in the CMB if it were not. Should gravity be purely classical, however, the tensor modes would have avoided canonical quantization in all cases, resulting in unmeasurably weak gravitational waves. A non-detection of B-mode polarization would thus not completely rule out inflation.