Imprint of cosmic neutrino decoupling in the spectrum of inflationary gravitational waves

Details Imprint of cosmic neutrino decoupling in the spectrum of inflationary gravitational waves Imprint of cosmic neutrino decoupling in the spectrum of inflationary gravitational waves

Nov 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010jphcs.259a2086l&link_type=abstract

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Volume 259, Issue 1, pp. 012086 (2010).

Physics

Scientific paper

In this paper we study the effect of cosmic neutrino decoupling on the spectrum of cosmological gravitational waves (GWs). Before decoupling, namely at temperatures T >> 1 MeV, neutrinos constitute a perfect fluid and do not hinder GW propagation, while well after decoupling, for T << 1 MeV, they free-stream generating an effective viscosity that damps cosmological GWs by a constant amount. In the intermediate regime, corresponding to the time of neutrino decoupling, the damping is frequency-dependent. GWs entering the horizon during neutrino decoupling have a frequency f ~ 1 nHz; in particular, we show how neutrino decoupling induces a step in the spectrum of cosmological GWs just below 1 nHz, a frequency region that will be probed by Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs). We briefly discuss the conditions for a detection of this feature and conclude that it is unlikely to be observed by PTAs.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Imprint of cosmic neutrino decoupling in the spectrum of inflationary gravitational waves does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Imprint of cosmic neutrino decoupling in the spectrum of inflationary gravitational waves, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Imprint of cosmic neutrino decoupling in the spectrum of inflationary gravitational waves will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1489365