Gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmological particle decay
We assume that the cosmological dark matter is composed of massive neutral scalar particles that decay into two massless particles. The decay produces a stochastic background of gravitational waves (GWs) via a “memory effect” mechanism. We calculate the spectral amplitude and slope of the resulting...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2020-02-01
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| Series: | Physical Review Research |
| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.012034 |
| _version_ | 1797211575412588544 |
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| author | Bruce Allen |
| author_facet | Bruce Allen |
| author_sort | Bruce Allen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We assume that the cosmological dark matter is composed of massive neutral scalar particles that decay into two massless particles. The decay produces a stochastic background of gravitational waves (GWs) via a “memory effect” mechanism. We calculate the spectral amplitude and slope of the resulting background, which is frequency independent (flat). We discuss its potential observability and show that the resulting background might dominate the cosmological GW background at frequencies above ≈10^{10} Hz. Penrose has proposed a cosmological model in which dark matter particles have the Planck mass and decay into two gravitons. For these, the spectrum has an additional “direct” contribution from the decay products, which we also calculate. At low frequencies, this direct contribution also has a flat spectrum but with a much smaller amplitude than the memory part. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:28:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ed490be747b84af3b97d943c89b0cf0b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2643-1564 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:28:40Z |
| publishDate | 2020-02-01 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Physical Review Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-ed490be747b84af3b97d943c89b0cf0b2024-04-12T16:49:41ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Research2643-15642020-02-012101203410.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.012034Gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmological particle decayBruce AllenWe assume that the cosmological dark matter is composed of massive neutral scalar particles that decay into two massless particles. The decay produces a stochastic background of gravitational waves (GWs) via a “memory effect” mechanism. We calculate the spectral amplitude and slope of the resulting background, which is frequency independent (flat). We discuss its potential observability and show that the resulting background might dominate the cosmological GW background at frequencies above ≈10^{10} Hz. Penrose has proposed a cosmological model in which dark matter particles have the Planck mass and decay into two gravitons. For these, the spectrum has an additional “direct” contribution from the decay products, which we also calculate. At low frequencies, this direct contribution also has a flat spectrum but with a much smaller amplitude than the memory part.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.012034 |
| spellingShingle | Bruce Allen Gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmological particle decay Physical Review Research |
| title | Gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmological particle decay |
| title_full | Gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmological particle decay |
| title_fullStr | Gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmological particle decay |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmological particle decay |
| title_short | Gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmological particle decay |
| title_sort | gravitational wave stochastic background from cosmological particle decay |
| url | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.012034 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bruceallen gravitationalwavestochasticbackgroundfromcosmologicalparticledecay |