Can the Gravitational Wave Background Feel Wiggles in Spacetime?

Autor: Gen Ye, Alessandra Silvestri
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol 963, Iss 1, p L15 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2041-8213
2041-8205
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad2851
Popis: Recently the international pulsar timing array collaboration has announced the first strong evidence for an isotropic gravitational-wave background (GWB). We propose that rapid small oscillations (wiggles) in the Hubble parameter would trigger a resonance with the propagating gravitational waves, leaving unique signatures in the GWB spectrum as sharp resonance peaks/troughs. The proposed signal can appear at all frequency ranges and is common to GWBs with arbitrary origin. The resonant signal can appear as a trough only when the GWB is primordial, and its amplitude will also be larger by one perturbation order than in the nonprimordial case. These properties serve as a smoking gun for the primordial origin of the observed GWB. We showcased the viability of the signal to near future observations using the recent NANOGrav 15 yr data.
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