Twisted echoes of an odd quartet: Scalar-induced gravitational waves as a probe of primordial parity-violation

Abstract

Parity-violation leaves tell-tale trails in many cosmological observables. We illustrate parity-odd primordial scalar trispectra, that despite being of modest strength, impart detectable chirality to scalar-induced gravitational waves (SIGW). This allows us to impose strong bounds on the parity-odd part of trispectrum. Over certain scales, we find SIGW directly quantify parity-violation in primordial non-Gaussianity, unobscured by the Gaussian contribution. Our results call for treatment of SIGW and parity-odd trispectrum as complementary predictions of parity-violating theories.

v1: 8 pages, 2 figures; v2: 9 pages, 2 figures, published version, title in journal publication is 'Scalar-induced gravitational waves as a probe of primordial parity-violation'