Seminarium "Teoria cząstek elementarnych i kosmologia"

The period of cosmic inflation is typically tested through its predictions for the Cosmic Microwave Background and the large-scale structure of our universe. However, these observational channels are only sensitive to a part of the inflationary era, while a significant part remains experimentally inaccessible. In this talk I will explain how the nascent field of gravitational wave astronomy can shed light on this so far “dark” phase of inflation. In particular, I will show that departures of inflation from the single-field slow-roll paradigm, motivated by ultraviolet completions of inflation, lead to a characteristic oscillation in the stochastic gravitational wave background. The properties of these oscillations encode information about the departure from single-field slow-roll, thus providing insight on the mechanism behind inflation. I will also comment on the prospects of observing this oscillatory signal with upcoming gravitational wave observatories such as LISA.

slides: https://mycloud.fuw.edu.pl/index.php/s/gyHrfM8aJertkic