Reconstructing primordial curvature perturbations via scalar-induced gravitational waves with LISA
Abstract Many early universe scenarios predict an enhancement of scalar perturbations at scales currently unconstrained by cosmological probes. These perturbations source gravitational waves (GWs) at second order in perturbation theory, leading to a scalar-induced gravitational wave (SIGW) background. The LISA detector, sensitive to mHz GWs, will be able to constrain curvature perturbations in a new window corresponding to scales k ∈ [10 10 , 10 14 ] Mpc -1 , difficult to probe otherwise. In this work, we forecast the capabilities of LISA to constrain the source of SIGWs using different approaches: i) agnostic, where the spectrum of curvature perturbations is binned in frequency space; ii) template-based, modeling the curvature power spectrum based on motivated classes of models; iii) ab initio, starting from first-principles model of inflation featuring an ultra-slow roll phase. We compare the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. We also discuss the impact on the SIGW spectrum of non-standard thermal histories affecting the kernels of SIGW emission and non-Gaussianity in the statistics of the curvature perturbations. Finally, we propose simple tests to assess whether the signal is compatible with the SIGW hypothesis. The pipeline used is built into the SIGWAY code.
Authors
- Denis Werth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3431-8186)
- Jonas El Gammal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4833-4266)
- Ivonne Zavala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5589-9928)
- Gianmassimo Tasinato (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9835-4864)
- Theodoros Papanikolaou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8759-5411)
- Angelo Ricciardone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5688-455X)
- Davide Racco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0859-8751)
- Jacopo Fumagalli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8081-7640)
- Robert Rosati (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3717-6582)
- J. Kume (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3126-5100)
- Enrico Morgante (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9389-0353)
- Marco Peloso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9348-9970)
- Gabriele Franciolini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-9145)
- Sébastien Renaux‐Petel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9730-4032)
- Hardi Veermäe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1845-1355)
- Matteo Braglia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3421-4069)
- Mauro Pieroni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0665-266X)
- Germano Nardini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3523-0477)
- G. Perna (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7364-1904)
- Aya Ghaleb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5498-6241)
Institutions
- Marshall Space Flight Center (US)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Padua (IT)
- University of Trieste (IT)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (FR)
- National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics (EE)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Swansea University (GB)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Osservatorio astronomico di Bologna (IT)
- Institute of Particle Physics (CA)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli (IT)
- National Observatory of Athens (GR)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna (IT)
- Scuola Superiore Meridionale (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste (IT)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa (IT)
- European Organization for Nuclear Research (CH)
- Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
- University of Stavanger (NO)
- University of Bologna (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
- Published
- 2025-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2025/05/062
- Citations
- 20
- Primary Topic
- Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 23.10