- Letter
Constraining early dark energy with gravitational waves before recombination
Phys. Rev. D 103, L021301 – Published 12 January, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.L021301
Abstract
We show that the nonperturbative decay of ultralight scalars into Abelian gauge bosons, recently proposed as a possible solution to the Hubble tension, produces a stochastic background of gravitational waves which is constrained by the cosmic microwave background. We simulate the full nonlinear dynamics of resonant dark photon production and the associated gravitational-wave production, finding the signals to exceed constraints for the entire parameter space we consider. Our findings suggest that gravitational-wave production from the decay of early dark energy may provide a unique probe of these models.
