Talks

The recent detection of very low-frequency stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) by Pulsar Timing Array collaborations like NANOGrav and IPTA has initiated many studies to understand the possible cosmological origin of such a signal. Amongst other candidates, the existence of primordial black holes (PBHs) in the early universe has also been pointed out as a very promising channel to generate such a signal. The most studied mechanism in this context is the formation of near-solar mass primordial black holes which leads to an amplification of SGWB in the relevant frequency range. This particular mechanism suffers from the overproduction of PBHs which can be overcome if we consider the PBHs to form during an extended non-standard reheating phase, instead of the standard radiation era. On the other hand, the resonant amplification of SGWB due to the domination of very low mass PBHs (10-10^5 g) before BBN can also effectively explain the NANOGrav data. We compare these different channels of SGWB generation with Bayesian analysis and find both these scenarios are statistically favored when individually compared with the astrophysical supermassive black hole binary merger model.

Galactic Dark Matter (DM) particles can get captured inside celestial bodies if they have some non-zero but weak interaction with the nucleons. Due to their significant size and lifetime, these celestial bodies can capture huge amounts of DM particles, and eventually, an overly dense dark core is created. This core can further collapse and form a minuscule Balck Hole (BH) that can eat up the entire celestial body over time and form a similar mass BH. Depending on the DM- nucleon interaction cross-section, this theory can be studied in non-compact stars like the Sun, and Jupiter, and compact objects like Neutron stars (NS). We show constraints on DM parameter space using gravitational wave detectors like LIGO (ground-based) and LISA (space-based), by studying low-mass (1-2.5 M_{solar}) compact object mergers and close stellar binaries in their inspiral phase respectively. We will argue how these gravitational wave experiments can work as a direct detection experiment for DM searches.

If a set of massive objects collide in space and the fragments disperse, possibly forming black holes, then this process will emit gravitational waves. Computing the detailed gravitational wave-form associated with this process is a complicated problem, not only due to the non-linearity of gravity but also due to the fact that during the collision and subsequent fragmentation the objects could undergo complicated non-gravitational interactions. Nevertheless the classical soft graviton theorem determines the power law fall-off of the wave-form at late and early times, including logarithmic corrections, in terms of only the momenta of the incoming and outgoing objects without any reference to what transpired during the collision. In this short review I shall explain the results and very briefly outline the derivation of these results.

In this talk I will discuss gravitational waves from the sound generated during the cosmic first order phase transitions. I will discuss some of the recent developments in the determination of the spectrum from this source. I will also discuss how to detect such gravitational waves with ground and space based detectors.

In the primordial plasma, at temperatures above the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking, the presence of chiral asymmetries is expected to induce the development of helical hypermagnetic fields through the phenomenon of chiral plasma instability. It results in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence due to the high conductivity and low viscosity and sources gravitational waves that survive in the universe today as a stochastic polarized gravitational wave background. In this article, we show that this scenario only relies on Standard Model physics, and therefore the observable signatures, namely the relic magnetic field and gravitational background, are linked to a single parameter controlling the initial chiral asymmetry. We estimate the magnetic field and gravitational wave spectra, and validate these estimates with 3D numerical simulations.
 

Multi-field models of inflation with negative field-space curvature may lead to geometrical destabilization of non-adiabatic, or spectator, scalar perturbations. This phenomenon can occur at the end of inflation, e.g. in alpha-attractor models of inflation, or during inflation. Recent numerical lattice simulations shed light onto dynamics of the coupled scalar perturbations when such geometrical destabilization occurs. In the end-of-inflation geometrical destabilization, a rapid growth of the spectator perturbations can lead to preheating and associated production of gravitational waves, to the extent that alpha attractor T-models can be constrained or even ruled out by present observations. The middle-of-inflation geometrical destabilization turns out a short-lived phenomenon and a negative feedback loop prevents field fluctuations from growing indefinitely. As a result, fields undergoing geometrical destabilization are merely shifted to a new classical configuration corresponding to a uniform value of the spectator field within a Hubble patch.
 

Pulsar timing arrays are on the cusp of making a detection of the stochastic gravitational wave background at nanohertz frequencies, with strong evidence presented in the datasets of five PTAs. While an astrophysical supermassive black-hole binaries driven background has been the most favoured source, current amplitudes appear to be in tension with classical models using quasi-circularised SMBHBs. This raises the intriguing possibility that the current background is at least partially driven by cosmological or "new physics" sources. I will present the current state of PTA experiments and the constraints on cosmological backgrounds, as well as future prospects.
 

In these two lectures, I shall discuss the generation of primary gravitational waves (GWs) during inflation and secondary GWs sourced by enhanced scalar perturbations during the epoch of radiation domination. In the first lecture, after a quick introduction to inflation and reheating, I shall describe the origin of GWs from the quantum vacuum during inflation and also discuss their evolution post inflation. I shall begin the second lecture by describing the generation of scalar spectra with enhanced power on small scales due to a brief phase of ultra slow roll during the later stages of inflation. Thereafter, I shall outline the manner in which the enhanced scalar power on small scales can generate secondary GWs of strengths comparable to the sensitivities of the ongoing and forthcoming GW observatories. I shall conclude by highlighting that the scalar-induced, secondary GWs generated during reheating can possibly explain the recent observations by the pulsar timing arrays that suggest a stochastic background of GWs.