Speaker
Description
"Cosmological inflation predicts the existence of primordial gravitational wave background. Originating as quantum fluctuations of the metric during inflation, slow roll inflation models predict a nearly flat spectrum for modes that exit the Hubble horizon during the accelerated expansion epoch. The spectrum naturally extends to high frequency modes that never enter the superhorizon regime. These modes experience resonance boosts from the oscillating background during reheating and therefore carry information about the inflaton oscillations and thermal history.
We present the production mechanism, calculation methods and features of the resulting spectra which can be potentially used to distinguish inflation models. We show that modified models of gravity like the Gauss-Bonnet term corrected inflation leave a strong high frequency graviton footprint. If ever measured using future technology, this can distinguish the higher curvature models from pure General Relativity ones."