Gravitational wave probe of Planck-scale physics after inflation
Particle decays are always accompanied by the emission of graviton quanta of gravity through bremsstrahlung processes. However, the corresponding branching ratio is suppressed by the square of the ratio of particle's mass to the Planck scale. The resulting present abundance of gravitational waves (GWs), composed of gravitons, is analogously suppressed. We show that superheavy particles, as heavy as the Planck scale, can be naturally produced during the post-inflationary reheating stage in the early Universe and their decays yield dramatic amounts of GWs over broad frequency range. GW observations could hence directly probe Planck-scale physics, notoriously challenging to explore.
Authors
- Kazunori Nakayama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0187-6939)
- Yong Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1100-2741)
- Wei-Yu Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8912-9754)
- Volodymyr Takhistov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2647-3431)
Institutions
- High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (JP)
- Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (JP)
- The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI (JP)
- Tohoku University (JP)
- Peking University (CN)
- International Centre for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physics Letters B
- Published
- 2024-08-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2024.138958
- Citations
- 17
- Primary Topic
- Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.64
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science