Last Modified: 2002 October 21
Charlie Torres / charlie@phys.utb.edu
General Relativity in strong field regimes
Dr. Sukanta Bose, Albert Einstein Institiute, Germany
In the frequency bandwidth of the upcoming gravitational-wave (GW) detectors, the cosmic background of relic gravitational waves is likely to bear a specific property arising from the phe-nomenon of cosmological squeezing. This property formally manifests itself as an oscillation in time of the power-spectrum of these waves; and its observation would vindicate the inflationary past of our universe. In practice, however, such an observation is not realizable. Nevertheless, as I shall show in this talk, squeezed gravitational waves affect the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) in a discernible fashion. So much so that by using data from the GW detectors, which will measure the GW power-spectrum, and our knowledge of the temperature anisotropy distribution of the CMBR, which is influenced by relic gravitational waves, we can estimate the degree of squeezing present in these waves and, hence, get a glimpse into our past history.