Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. IV: probing inflation with gravitational waves

• Published in: Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics Vol. 2016; no. 12; p. 26
• Main Authors: Bartolo, Nicola, Caprini, Chiara, Domcke, Valerie, Figueroa, Daniel G., Garcia-Bellido, Juan, Guzzetti, Maria Chiara, Liguori, Michele, Matarrese, Sabino, Peloso, Marco, Petiteau, Antoine, Ricciardone, Angelo, Sakellariadou, Mairi, Sorbo, Lorenzo, Tasinato, Gianmassimo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Institute of Physics (IOP) 01.12.2016
• Subjects: Astronomy & Astrophysics; Astrophysics; General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; Physics; velocity: acoustic; gravitational radiation: stochastic; symmetry breaking; gravitational radiation: background; inflation: effective field theory; gravitational radiation detector; LISA: sensitivity; interferometer; detector: design; black hole: primordial; gravitational radiation detector: satellite
• ISSN: 1475-7516; 1475-7508; 1475-7516
• DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2016/12/026

We investigate the potential for the LISA space-based interferometer to detect the stochastic gravitational wave background produced from different mechanisms during inflation. Focusing on well-motivated scenarios, we study the resulting contributions from particle production during inflation, inflationary spectator fields with varying speed of sound, effective field theories of inflation with specific patterns of symmetry breaking and models leading to the formation of primordial black holes. The projected sensitivities of LISA are used in a model-independent way for various detector designs and configurations. We demonstrate that LISA is able to probe these well-motivated inflationary scenarios beyond the irreducible vacuum tensor modes expected from any inflationary background.