Gravitational Wave Propagation in a Geometric Condensate in Starobinsky Cosmology

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gravitational waves propagate through a time-dependent scalar condensate derived from Starobinsky's $R + \\alpha R^2$ model, revealing signatures in wave profiles without external matter influence.

Contribution

It introduces a novel geometric condensate background in Starobinsky cosmology and analyzes its effects on gravitational wave propagation, providing analytical wave solutions.

Findings

Condensate induces curvature and radiation-like effects in FLRW cosmology.

Gravitational wave profiles are modified by the condensate, with analytical solutions obtained.

No external matter is needed for the condensate, highlighting a purely geometric origin.

Abstract

In this paper we propose a new paradigm for cosmology: a time dependent scalar condensate background originated from the quadratic $(R + \alpha R^2)$ Starobinski model, where $R$ is the Ricci scalar and $\alpha$ the coupling constant. In weak gravity limit the system decouples into a conventional graviton and a higher derivative scalar. It was shown earlier through works from our group, \cite{ssg,sg,us}, that the latter can sustain an oscillatory lowest energy configuration or a {\it{Geometric Condensate}} as it consists entirely of metric degrees of freedom. In the present work, we study Gravitational Wave propagation in this condensate background. We show that the explicit time dependent nature of the condensate can generate curvature and radiation-like contributions in the scale factor evolution in FLRW cosmology. Subsequently the condensate leaves its signature on the Gravitational Wave profile as it propagates in the condensate modified FLRW spacetime. The wave profile is calculated analytically in terms of Whittaker functions. The main novelty of the Geometric Condensate scheme is that no external (condensate) matter from outside has been considered.