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<p>We investigate a novel gravitational wave (GW) production mechanism from gravitons generated during the pre-thermal phase of cosmic reheating, where the energy density is dominated by non-thermalized inflaton decay products, dubbed <i>reheatons</i>. We consider multiple production channels, including: <i>i</i>) pure inflaton-inflaton annihilation, <i>ii</i>) graviton Bremsstrahlung from inflaton decay, <i>iii</i>) scatterings between an inflaton and a reheaton, and <i>iv</i>) scatterings among reheatons. To determine the resulting GW spectrum, we solve the Boltzmann equation to obtain the graviton phase-space distribution for each channel. We find that the third channel, <i>iii</i>), dominates due to the large occupation number of reheatons at highly-energetic states during the pre-thermalization phase. Notably, in scenarios with a low inflaton mass, the GW spectrum could fall within the sensitivity range of future experiments such as the Einstein Telescope, the Cosmic Explorer, the Big Bang Observer, and ultimate DECIGO.</p>

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Pre-thermalized gravitational waves

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年8月18日

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  • Nicolás Bernal,
  • Quan-feng Wu,
  • Xun-Jie Xu,
  • Yong Xu

摘要

We investigate a novel gravitational wave (GW) production mechanism from gravitons generated during the pre-thermal phase of cosmic reheating, where the energy density is dominated by non-thermalized inflaton decay products, dubbed reheatons. We consider multiple production channels, including: i) pure inflaton-inflaton annihilation, ii) graviton Bremsstrahlung from inflaton decay, iii) scatterings between an inflaton and a reheaton, and iv) scatterings among reheatons. To determine the resulting GW spectrum, we solve the Boltzmann equation to obtain the graviton phase-space distribution for each channel. We find that the third channel, iii), dominates due to the large occupation number of reheatons at highly-energetic states during the pre-thermalization phase. Notably, in scenarios with a low inflaton mass, the GW spectrum could fall within the sensitivity range of future experiments such as the Einstein Telescope, the Cosmic Explorer, the Big Bang Observer, and ultimate DECIGO.