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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Double monodromy inflation: Gravitational wave factory for CMB-S4, LiteBIRD, and LISA

Guido D’Amico1,2,*, Nemanja Kaloper3,†, and Alexander Westphal4,‡

  • 1Department of Mathematical, Physical and Computer Sciences, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
  • 2INFN Gruppo Collegato di Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
  • 3QMAP, Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA
  • 4Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Theory Group, D-22603 Hamburg, Germany

  • *damico.guido@gmail.com
  • †kaloper@physics.ucdavis.edu
  • ‡alexander.westphal@desy.de
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Phys. Rev. D 104, L081302 – Published 21 October, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.L081302

Abstract

We consider a short rollercoaster cosmology based on two stages of monodromy inflation separated by a stage of matter domination, generated after the early inflaton falls out of slow roll. If the first stage is controlled by a flat potential, V∼ϕp with p<1 and lasts N∼30–40 e-folds, the scalar and tensor perturbations at the largest scales will fit the CMB perfectly, and produce relic gravity waves with 0.02≲r≲0.06, which can be tested by LiteBIRD and CMB-S4 experiments. If in addition the first inflaton is strongly coupled to a hidden sector U(1), there will be an enhanced production of vector fluctuations near the end of the first stage of inflation. These modes convert rapidly to tensors during the short epoch of matter domination, and then get pushed to superhorizon scales by the second stage of inflation, lasting another 20–30 e-folds. This band of gravity waves is chiral, arrives today with wavelengths in the range of 108  km, and with amplitudes greatly enhanced compared to the long wavelength CMB modes by vector sources. It is therefore accessible to LISA. Thus our model presents a rare early universe theory predicting several simultaneous signals testable by a broad range of gravity wave searches in the very near future.

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Phys. Rev. D 104, L081302– Published 21 October, 2021
  • Received 24 June 2021
  • Accepted 23 September 2021
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