Abstract
We reexamine the stochastic gravitational wave background resulting from inflation and its effect on the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). Measurement by the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite of a CMBR quadrupole anisotropy places an upper limit on the vacuum energy during inflation of 5×1016 GeV. Gravitational waves from inflation could produce the entire observed signal if the vacuum energy during inflation was as small as 1.5×1016 GeV at the 95% confidence level. This coincides with recent estimates of grand unification scales inferred from renormalization-group arguments, for Supersymmetric grand unified theories. Further tests of this possibility are examined, based on analyzing the energy density associated with gravitational waves from inflation.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 869-872 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Physical Review Letters |
Volume | 69 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1992 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy