Probing the reheating temperature of the universe with a gravitational wave background

Kazunori Nakayama, Shun Saito, Yudai Suwa, Jun'Ichi Yokoyama

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

98 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The thermal history of the universe after big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is well understood both theoretically and observationally, and recent cosmological observations also begin to reveal the inflationary dynamics. However, the epoch between inflation and BBN is scarcely known. In this paper we show that the detection of the stochastic gravitational wave background around 1Hz provides useful information about thermal history well before BBN. In particular, the reheating temperature of the universe may be determined by future space-based laser interferometer experiments such as DECIGO and/or BBO if it is around 10 6-9GeV, depending on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r and dilution factor F.

Original languageEnglish
Article number020
JournalJournal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Volume2008
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008 Jun 1
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Gravity waves/theory
  • Inflation
  • Physics of the early universe

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics

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