Abstract
We calculate the full spectrum, as observed today, of the cosmological gravitational waves generated within a model based on loop quantum cosmology, in which the corrections to the dynamical equations describing the evolution of the universe during the semiclassical regime are of the inverse-volume type. It is assumed that the universe, after the transition to the classical regime, undergoes a period of inflation driven by a scalar field with a chaotic-type potential. Our analysis shows that, for certain conditions, loop quantum effects leave a clear signature on the spectrum, namely, an overproduction of low-frequency gravitational waves. One of the aims of our work is to show that loop quantum cosmology models can be tested and that, more generally, preinflationary physical processes leave their imprint in gravitational-wave spectra and can also be tested.
1 More- Received 30 July 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.85.024034
© 2012 American Physical Society