Implications of pulsar timing arrays for Gauss-Bonnet Inflation

Abstract

Correlated time-of-arrival measurements by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) have provided a new means of constraining astrophysical or cosmological models that produce a gravitational wave (GW) background. For this work, we discuss the implications of PTA observations for Gauss-Bonnet (GB) inflationary models through the production and propagation of inflationary GWs. We show that our GB inflationary scenario is consistent with present PTA and cosmological data. A blue-tilted tensor power spectrum supported by PTAs can be naturally accommodated in GB inflation. Using observational constraints, we derive general conditions for the inflaton potential and the GB coupling function, suggesting that in GB inflation, the inflaton must climb up the potential before rolling downhill and reaching the end of inflation. We provide two concrete GB inflationary models to demonstrate the viability of this mechanism.

20 pages + refs, 4 figures, discussion updated, to appear in JCAP

References in corpus (80)

• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• GWTC-3: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo During the Second Part of the Third Observing Run
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Evidence for a Gravitational-Wave Background
• Search for an isotropic gravitational-wave background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Searching for the nano-Hertz stochastic gravitational wave background with the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array Data Release I
• Covariant Galileon
• The second data release from the European Pulsar Timing Array III. Search for gravitational wave signals
• BICEP / Keck XIII: Improved Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves using Planck, WMAP, and BICEP/Keck Observations through the 2018 Observing Season
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Search for Signals from New Physics
• Horndeski theory and beyond: a review
• The stochastic gravitational-wave background from massive black hole binary systems: implications for observations with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• G-inflation: inflation driven by the Galileon field
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Observations and Timing of 68 Millisecond Pulsars
• The International Pulsar Timing Array second data release: Search for an isotropic Gravitational Wave Background
• Improved Calculation of the Primordial Gravitational Wave Spectrum in the Standard Model
• Improved limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio using BICEP and Planck
• Recent Advances on Inflation
• Inflationary interpretation of the stochastic gravitational wave background signal detected by pulsar timing array experiments
• Tensor Modes from a Primordial Hagedorn Phase of String Cosmology
• Primordial gravitational waves from NANOGrav: a broken power-law approach
• Searching For Gravitational Waves From Cosmological Phase Transitions With The NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset
• Blue Tensor Spectrum from Particle Production during Inflation
• Blue-tilted Tensor Spectrum and Thermal History of the Universe
• Cosmological Background Interpretation of Pulsar Timing Array Data
• Stochastic gravitational-wave background from metastable cosmic strings
• Probing the equation of state of the early Universe with pulsar timing arrays
• Implications for the non-Gaussianity of curvature perturbation from pulsar timing arrays
• Observational constraints on slow-roll inflation coupled to a Gauss-Bonnet term
• Perturbation, Non-Gaussianity and Reheating in a GB-$\alpha$-Attractor Model
• The MeerKAT Pulsar Timing Array: The first search for gravitational waves with the MeerKAT radio telescope
• The Need For Speed: Rapid Refitting Techniques for Bayesian Spectral Characterization of the Gravitational Wave Background Using PTAs
• Constraining cosmological phase transitions with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• Gravitational Waves from SMBH Binaries in Light of the NANOGrav 15-Year Data
• Observational constraints on patch inflation in noncommutative spacetime
• Implications for the Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from the NANOGrav 15-year Data Set
• Implications of Pulsar Timing Array Data for Scalar-Induced Gravitational Waves and Primordial Black Holes: Primordial Non-Gaussianity $f_{\mathrm{NL}}$ Considered
• Natural Inflation: Consistency with Cosmic Microwave Background Observations of Planck and BICEP2
• Non-Minimally Coupled Einstein Gauss Bonnet Inflation Phenomenology in View of GW170817
• Pulsars and Gravity
• Inflation with a quartic potential in the framework of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity
• Confronting sound speed resonance with pulsar timing arrays
• De Sitter solutions in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity
• Global stability analysis for cosmological models with non-minimally coupled scalar fields
• Simultaneously probing the sound speed and equation of state of the early Universe with pulsar timing arrays
• Broken blue-tilted inflationary gravitational waves: a joint analysis of NANOGrav 15-year and BICEP/Keck 2018 data
• NANOGrav signal from axion inflation
• Constraints On Scalar-Induced Gravitational Waves Up To Third Order From Joint Analysis of BBN, CMB, And PTA Data
• Probing the speed of scalar-induced gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays
• Gravitational waves induced by scalar-tensor mixing
• Pulsar timing array observations as possible hints for nonsingular cosmology
• Fingerprint of GeV scale right-handed neutrinos on inflationary gravitational waves and PTA data
• Multi-messenger constraints on Abelian-Higgs cosmic string networks
• The Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Astronomer
• NANOGrav hints for first-order confinement-deconfinement phase transition in different QCD-matter scenarios
• Inflationary Dynamics and Swampland Criteria for Modified Gauss-Bonnet Gravity Compatible with GW170817
• Multi-messenger Approaches to Supermassive Black Hole Binary Detection and Parameter Estimation: Implications for Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Searches with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Null energy condition violation during inflation and pulsar timing array observations
• Imprints of Supermassive Black Hole Evolution on the Spectral and Spatial Anisotropy of Nano-Hertz Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• LiteBIRD Science Goals and Forecasts. A Case Study of the Origin of Primordial Gravitational Waves using Large-Scale CMB Polarization
• Implications of cosmologically coupled black holes for pulsar timing arrays
• New slow-roll approximations for inflation in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity
• Revised bounds on local cosmic strings from NANOGrav observations
• Status Report on Global Pulsar-Timing-Array Efforts to Detect Gravitational Waves
• Study of Goldstone Inflation in the domain of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity
• Revisiting slow-roll dynamics and the tensor tilt in general single-field inflation
• Impact of memory-burdened black holes on primordial gravitational waves in light of Pulsar Timing Array
• Supermassive Black Hole Binary Environments: Effects on the Scaling Laws and Time to Detection for the Stochastic Background
• Eccentricity effects on the supermassive black hole gravitational wave background
• Consistency of JWST Black Hole Observations with NANOGrav Gravitational Wave Measurements
• Charting the Nanohertz Gravitational Wave Sky with Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Can we distinguish the adiabatic fluctuations and isocurvature fluctuations with pulsar timing arrays?
• Constraining models of Inflationary Magnetogenesis with NANOGrav
• Robust constraints on tensor perturbations from cosmological data: a comparative analysis from Bayesian and frequentist perspectives
• Inflationary Dynamics in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity Using New Slow-Roll Approximations considering Generalised Reheating
• Constraining string cosmology with the gravitational-wave background using the NANOGrav 15-year data set
• Pulsar Timing Arrays
• Gravitational waves and primordial black holes from the T-model inflation with Gauss-Bonnet correction
• Discovering the Cosmic Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes using Nano-Hertz Gravitational Waves and Galaxy Surveys
• Search for the non-linearities of gravitational wave background in NANOGrav 15-year data set
• Discovery Opportunities with Gravitational Waves -- TASI 2024 Lecture Notes