Primordial Gravitational Waves and Inflation: CMB and Direct Detection With Space-Based Laser Interferometers

Abstract

The curl-modes of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization probe horizon-scale primordial gravitational waves related to inflation. A significant source of confusion is expected from a lensing conversion of polarization related to density perturbations to the curl mode, during the propagation of photons through the large scale structure. Either high resolution CMB anisotropy observations or 21 cm fluctuations at redshifts 30 and higher can be used to delens polarization data and to separate gravitational-wave polarization signature from that of cosmic-shear related signal. Separations based on proposed lensing reconstruction techniques for reasonable future experiments allow the possibility to probe inflationary energy scales down to 10^15 GeV. Beyond CMB polarization, at frequencies between 0.01 Hz to 1 Hz, space-based laser interferometers can also be used to probe the inflationary gravitational wave background. The confusion here is related to the removal of merging neutron star binaries at cosmological distances. Given the low merger rate and the rapid evolution of the gravitational wave frequency across this band, reliable removal techniques can be constructed. We discuss issues related to joint constraints that can be placed on the inflationary models based on CMB polarization information and space-based interferometers such as the Big Bang Observer.

20 pages, 5 figures. Review article based on invited lectures at the Daniel Chalonge International School of Astrophysics: WMAP and the Early Universe, Observatoire de Paris, December 2004. To appear in proceedings (Eds. N. G. Sanchez & H. J. De Vega)

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• Correlation analysis of stochastic gravitational wave background around 0.1-1Hz
• Gravitational Waves from the First Stars
• Deciphering Inflation with Gravitational Waves: Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization vs. Direct Detection with Laser Interferometers
• Implications of the B-mode Polarization Measurement for Direct Detection of Inflationary Gravitational Waves
• Evidence for cosmic neutrino background form CMB circular polarization
• Studying Inflation with Future Space-Based Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Inflationary Tensor Perturbations After BICEP
• Can Inflation solve the Hierarchy Problem?
• The History of Inflation from Microwave Background Polarimetry and Laser Interferometry
• Approximate Consistency Condition from Running Spectral Index in Slow-Roll Inflationary Models
• Electroweak phase transition in the presence of hypermagnetic field and the generation of gravitational waves
• Gravitational Wave Direct Detection does not Constrain the Tensor Spectral Index at CMB Scales