Conversion of high frequency relic gravitational waves into photons in cosmological magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how relic gravitational waves can convert into photons within cosmological magnetic fields during the radiation epoch, revealing a significant frequency-dependent effect that could impact observations of the early universe.

Contribution

It provides an analytical solution to the Gertsenshtein effect equations in a cosmological setting, extending previous work and exploring the impact of magnetic fields on relic gravitational waves.

Findings

Relic gravitational waves with frequencies above 10^{-11} Hz are significantly amplified.

Magnetic field strength of about 1 nGs influences the conversion process.

Model dependency of the results is discussed.

Abstract

This work continues the research presented in the article [1], where we estimate the Gertsenshtein effect's influence on the long-wavelength part of relic gravitational wave spectrum. Here, the differential equation system for the Gertsenshtein effect in Friedman-LeMaitre-Robertson-Walker universe, derived in [1], is simplified for gravitational waves in the under-horizon regime during radiation dominance epoch. Then, the obtained system is solved analytically. As a result of the solution analysis a conclusion was made about a significant increase of relic GWs with the frequencies $ k\gtrsim 10^{-11}$ Hz for magnetic field strength about 1 nGs. In addition, at the end of the article model dependency of the result is discussed