Ghiglieri, Jacopo; Laine, Mikko Sakari (2015). Gravitational wave background from Standard Model physics: qualitative features. Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics, 2015(07), 022-022. Institute of Physics Publishing IOP 10.1088/1475-7516/2015/07/022
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Because of physical processes ranging from microscopic particle collisions to macroscopic hydrodynamic fluctuations, any plasma in thermal equilibrium emits gravitational waves. For the largest wavelengths the emission rate is proportional to the shear viscosity of the plasma. In the Standard Model at 0T > 16 GeV, the shear viscosity is dominated by the most weakly interacting particles, right-handed leptons, and is relatively large. We estimate the order of magnitude of the corresponding spectrum of gravitational waves. Even though at small frequencies (corresponding to the sub-Hz range relevant for planned observatories such as eLISA) this background is tiny compared with that from non-equilibrium sources, the total energy carried by the high-frequency part of the spectrum is non-negligible if the production continues for a long time. We suggest that this may constrain (weakly) the highest temperature of the radiation epoch. Observing the high-frequency part directly sets a very ambitious goal for future generations of GHz-range detectors.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
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Division/Institute: |
10 Strategic Research Centers > Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics (AEC) 08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Theoretical Physics |
UniBE Contributor: |
Ghiglieri, Jacopo, Laine, Mikko Sakari |
Subjects: |
500 Science > 530 Physics |
ISSN: |
1475-7516 |
Publisher: |
Institute of Physics Publishing IOP |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Esther Fiechter |
Date Deposited: |
28 Aug 2015 07:53 |
Last Modified: |
05 Dec 2022 14:49 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1088/1475-7516/2015/07/022 |
ArXiv ID: |
1504.02569v2 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.7892/boris.71293 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/71293 |
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