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Testing the Starobinsky model of inflation with resonant cavities

Subhendra Mohanty, Sukanta Panda, Archit Vidyarthi

Abstract

We show that the Starobinsky inflation model based on $R^2$ gravity has a special feature that it provides a unique scalaron-two-graviton vertex with a coupling proportional to $1/M_P$. In this model stochastic gravitational waves are produced when the scalaron - which is the massive scalar mode of the metric - decays into gravitons during reheating. This decay is accompanied by decay of scalaron into matter as well through a similar coupling, providing an efficient reheating. The stochastic gravitational waves thus produced have characteristic strain $h_c\sim 10^{-35}-10^{-34}$ in the frequency range $10^{6}-10^{12}\, {\rm Hz}$ which makes them accessible to resonant cavity searches for graviton to photon conversions. The detection of these high frequency gravitational waves would be a significant step in experimentally testing the Starobinsky inflation model.

Testing the Starobinsky model of inflation with resonant cavities

Abstract

We show that the Starobinsky inflation model based on gravity has a special feature that it provides a unique scalaron-two-graviton vertex with a coupling proportional to . In this model stochastic gravitational waves are produced when the scalaron - which is the massive scalar mode of the metric - decays into gravitons during reheating. This decay is accompanied by decay of scalaron into matter as well through a similar coupling, providing an efficient reheating. The stochastic gravitational waves thus produced have characteristic strain in the frequency range which makes them accessible to resonant cavity searches for graviton to photon conversions. The detection of these high frequency gravitational waves would be a significant step in experimentally testing the Starobinsky inflation model.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 7 sections, 28 equations, 1 figure.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Scalaron Decay in Jordan Frame Starobinsky Model
  3. Comparison with Einstein Frame Dynamics
  4. Perturbative Reheating Epoch
  5. Gravitational Waves: Production and Detection
  6. Discussion
  7. Acknowledgments

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: The SGWB signal produced during reheating in the Starobinsky model is shown to be detectable via proposed EMRC detectors. Detectability in EMRC is expected to be much higher in the downward spikes due to resonance effects Herman:2022fau. The sensitivity curve for EMRC presented here corresponds to one set of model parameters that can be changed such that the detector functions in the kHz-THz range. Plots for other experiments are presented solely for reference and reflect approx. sensitivities.