Extreme gravitational waves from inflaton fragmentation

Abstract

Although inflationary models generically predict a flat spectrum of gravitational waves, we point out a general process that produces a sharply peaked spectrum of gravitational radiation. This process is generic for inflationary models with a complex inflaton field which couples to fermions. In particular, for chaotic models these may be the most extreme gravitational waves in the Universe with a very large energy density fraction 10^-9 and ultra-high frequency, 10^10 Hz. Although not amenable to space based interferometers, the signal from this model may be detectable by future table top experiments.