Gravitational wave background from Standard Model physics: complete leading order

• Published in: The journal of high energy physics Vol. 2020; no. 7; pp. 1 - 30
• Main Authors: Ghiglieri, J., Jackson, G., Laine, M., Zhu, Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2020; Springer Nature B.V; Springer; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM; Elementary Particles; Flux density; Gravitation; Gravitational waves; High energy physics; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; Parameter uncertainty; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Plasmas (physics); Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Quantum Physics; Quark-Gluon Plasma; Regular Article - Theoretical Physics; Relativity Theory; Resummation; String Theory; Subtraction; Thermal Field Theory; Quark-Gluon Plasma; Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM; Resummation; Thermal Field Theory; gravitational radiation: emission; energy: density; radiation: temperature; gravitational radiation: background; thermal; history; plasma; higher-order: 0
• ISSN: 1029-8479; 1126-6708; 1029-8479
• DOI: 10.1007/JHEP07(2020)092

A bstract We compute the production rate of the energy density carried by gravitational waves emitted by a Standard Model plasma in thermal equilibrium, consistently to leading order in coupling constants for momenta k ∼ πT . Summing up the contributions from the full history of the universe, the highest temperature of the radiation epoch can be constrained by the so-called N eff parameter. The current theoretical uncertainty ∆ N eff ≤ 10 − 3 corresponds to T max ≤ 2 × 10 17 GeV. In the course of the computation, we show how a subpart of the production rate can be determined with the help of standard packages, even if subsequently an IR subtraction and thermal resummation need to be implemented.