Gravitational Wave Symphony from Oscillating Spectator Scalar Fields

We investigate a generic source of stochastic gravitational wave background due to the parametric resonance of oscillating scalar fields in the early Universe. By systematically analyzing benchmark models through lattice simulations and considering a wide range of parameters, we demonstrate that such a scenario can lead to detectable signals in gravitational wave detectors over a broad frequency range and potentially address the recent findings by pulsar timing array experiments. Furthermore, these models naturally yield ultralight dark matter candidates or dark radiation detectable by cosmic microwave background observatories.

Numerical Studies of Back Reaction Effects in an Analog Model of Cosmological Preheating

We theoretically propose an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate as an analog model of backreaction effects during the preheating stage of the early Universe. In particular, we address the out-of-equilibrium dynamics where the initially excited inflaton field decays by parametrically exciting the matter fields. We consider a two-dimensional, ring-shaped BEC under a tight transverse confinement whose transverse breathing mode and the Goldstone and dipole excitation branches simulate the inflaton and quantum matter fields, respectively. A strong excitation of the breathing mode leads to an exponentially growing emission of dipole and Goldstone excitations via parametric pair creation: Our numerical simulations of the BEC dynamics show how the associated backreaction effect results not only in an effective friction of the breathing mode, but also in a quick loss of longitudinal spatial coherence of the initially in-phase excitations. Implications of this result on the validity of the usual semiclassical description of backreaction are finally discussed.

Enhanced Gravitational Waves from Inflaton Oscillons

In broad classes of inflationary models the period of accelerated expansion is followed by fragmentation of the inflaton scalar field into localized, long-lived, and massive oscillon excitations. We demonstrate that matter dominance of oscillons, followed by their rapid decay, significantly enhances the primordial gravitational wave (GW) spectrum. These oscillon-induced GWs, sourced by second-order perturbations, are distinct and could be orders of magnitude lower in frequency than the previously considered GWs associated with oscillon formation. We show that detectable oscillon-induced GW signatures establish direct tests independent from cosmic microwave background radiation for regions of parameter space of monodromy, and logarithmic and pure natural (plateau) potential classes of inflationary models, among others. We demonstrate that oscillon-induced GWs in a model based on pure natural inflation could be directly observable with the Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer, and DECIGO. These signatures offer a new route for probing the underlying inflationary physics.

Detection of early-universe gravitational-wave signatures and fundamental physics

Detection of a gravitational-wave signal of non-astrophysical origin would be a landmark discovery, potentially providing a significant clue to some of our most basic, big-picture scientific questions about the Universe. In this white paper, we survey the leading early-Universe mechanisms that may produce a detectable signal-including inflation, phase transitions, topological defects, as well as primordial black holes-and highlight the connections to fundamental physics. We review the complementarity with collider searches for new physics, and multimessenger probes of the large-scale structure of the Universe.

Numerical renormalization-group-based approach to secular perturbation theory

Perturbation theory is a crucial tool for many physical systems, when exact solutions are not available, or nonperturbative numerical solutions are intractable. Naive perturbation theory often fails on long timescales, leading to secularly growing solutions. These divergences have been treated with a variety of techniques, including the powerful dynamical renormalization group (DRG). Most of the existing DRG approaches rely on having analytic solutions up to some order in perturbation theory. However, sometimes the equations can only be solved numerically. We reformulate the DRG in the language of differential geometry, which allows us to apply it to numerical solutions of the background and perturbation equations. This formulation also enables us to use the DRG in systems with background parameter flows and, therefore, extend our results to any order in perturbation theory. As an example, we apply this method to calculate the soliton-like solutions of the Korteweg-de Vries equation deformed by adding a small damping term. We numerically construct DRG solutions which are valid on secular timescales, long after naive perturbation theory has broken down.

Lighting the Dark: Evolution of the Postinflationary Universe

In simple inflationary cosmological scenarios, the near-exponential growth can be followed by a long period in which the Universe is dominated by the oscillating inflaton condensate. The condensate is initially almost homogeneous, but perturbations grow gravitationally, eventually fragmenting the condensate if it is not disrupted more quickly by resonance or prompt reheating. We show that the gravitational fragmentation of the condensate is well-described by the Schrödinger-Poisson equations and use numerical solutions to show that large overdensities form quickly after the onset of nonlinearity. This is the first exploration of this phase of nonlinear dynamics in the very early Universe, which can affect the detailed form of the inflationary power spectrum and the dark matter fraction when the dark sector is directly coupled to the inflaton.

Creating oscillons and oscillating kinks in two scalar field theories

Oscillons are time-dependent, localized in space, extremely long-lived states in nonlinear scalar-field models, while kinks are topological solitons in one spatial dimension. In the present work, we show new classes of oscillons and oscillating kinks in a system of two nonlinearly coupled scalar fields in 1+1 spatiotemporal dimensions. The solutions contain a control parameter, the variation of which produces oscillons and kinks with a flat-top shape. The model finds applications in condensed matter, cosmology, and high-energy physics.