Does Gauss-Bonnet Inflationary Gravitational Waves satisfy the Pulsar Timing Arrays observations?

TL;DR

This paper investigates Gauss-Bonnet inflationary models' gravitational waves and their compatibility with pulsar timing array observations, revealing potential parameter ranges and the model's promising detectability prospects.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of Gauss-Bonnet inflationary gravitational wave models with PTA data, highlighting their closer fit and potential for future detection.

Findings

PTA data suggest non-positive values for the parameter n in GB-IGW models.

GB-IGW models align more closely with PTA data than standard inflation models.

Differences observed between PTA-derived parameters and Planck 2018 CMB results.

Abstract

The observations from pulsar timing arrays (PTAs), led by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), have provided opportunities to constrain primordial gravitational waves at low frequencies. In this paper, we analyze the best-fit parameter values for different Gauss-Bonnet Inflationary Gravitational Wave (GB-IGW) models with the PTArcade program, and we compare the results with the observations of NANOGrav, European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA), Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA), and International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA). We find the potential parameter $n$ derived from the GB-IGW model is not necessarily positive. Instead, PTA data suggest the possibility of new parameter ranges. Meanwhile, the other parameters' results, such as the spectral indices of the scalar and tensor perturbation also have differences with traditional Cosmic Microwave Background analyses from Planck 2018, showing the reason for the different phenomena of Gravitational Wave power spectra expected. Additionally, the GB-IGW models we calculated are closer to the central values of multiple PTA datasets compared to the standard inflation model, making the GB-IGW model more likely to be detected by future space-based gravitational wave observatories.