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2023.5.8
QUP Scientists Find Novel Method to Uncover Behavior of Earliest Universe Using Gravitational Waves
With the beautiful new green season, there are more opportunities to enjoy beer bubbles outdoors this year. Some people at the International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP) are studying bubbles created in extreme environments elsewhere.
Assistant Professor Volodymyr Takhistov, a Senior Scientist of QUP and Theory Center at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), is wondering what happened at the earliest moments just after the Big Bang, when inflation is thought to have caused the Universe to exponentially expand.
Assistant Professor Volodymyr Takhistov
In a new study published in Physical Review Letters, collaborating with Dr. Koloian D. Lozanov of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU), Takhistov found that in many cosmological theories when the oscillating inflaton field that drives the period of inflation fragments into long-lived “bubble-like” localized massive oscillon formations, their decay can result in a significant generation of gravitational waves.
Detection in upcoming experiments of such gravitational wave disturbances in the fabric of space-time will provide novel unique insights into the Universe’s beginning, independently of the conventionally studied cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation.
"The results are quite exciting as they allow us to study the mysteries of the early Universe from a different perspective in various theories, but more work needs to be done to fully explore their implications." - says Takhistov.
QUP is conducting a broad range of research on the earliest moments of the Universe, including the search for primordial gravitational waves through polarized light observations of the CMB that is the main focus of the upcoming LiteBIRD space mission. Takhistov, along with colleagues at QUP and KEK Theory Center, is also exploring other avenues for uncovering the mysteries of the early Universe from a theoretical point of view.
Details of their study were published in Physical Review Letters on May 2.
Paper details
Journal: Physical Review Letters
Title: Enhanced gravitational waves from inflaton oscillons
Authors: Kaloian D. Lozanov, Volodymyr Takhistov
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.181002
Paper abstract (PRL): journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.181002
Preprint (arXiv.org): https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.07152
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