A recent study reveals a new mechanism for the production of gravitational waves, involving oscillons—localized non-linear structures that form from oscillating fields. These oscillons, formed after the rapid expansion of the Universe during the inflationary period, can generate detectable gravitational waves when they decay. These gravitational waves provide a unique opportunity to investigate the early Universe and address fundamental questions in cosmology.
Researchers have discovered a new generic production mechanism of gravitational waves generated by a phenomenon known as oscillons, which can originate in many cosmological theories from the fragmentation into solitonic “lumps” of the inflaton field that drove the early Universe’s rapid expansion, reports a new study published in Physical Review Letters.
The results have set the stage for revealing exciting novel insights about the Universe’s earliest moments.
The inflationary period, which occurred just after the Big Bang, is believed to have caused the Universe to expand exponentially. In many cosmological theories, the rapid expansion period is followed by the formation of oscillons. Oscillons are a type of localized non-linear massive structure that can form from fields, such as the inflaton field, which are oscillating at high frequencies. These structures can persist for long periods, and as the researchers found, their eventual decay can generate a significant amount of gravitational waves, which are ripples in space-time.
Simulating the Early Universe
In their study, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) Project Researcher Kaloian D. Lozanov, and Kavli IPMU Visiting Associate Scientist, International Center for Quantum-field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP) Senior Scientist, and High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) Theory Center Assistant Professor Volodymyr Takhistov, simulated the evolution of the inflaton field during the early Universe and found that oscillons were indeed present. They then found that oscillon decay was able to generate gravitational waves that would be detectable by upcoming gravitational wave observatories.
The findings provide a novel test of the early Universe dynamics independent of the conventionally studied cosmic microwave background radiation. The discovery of these gravitational waves would establish a new window into the Universe’s earliest moments, and could help shed light on some of the pressing fundamental questions in cosmology.
With the ongoing development of gravitational wave detectors and supercomputing resources, we can expect to gain even more insights into the Universe’s early moments in the coming years. Overall, the new study demonstrates the power of combining theoretical models with advanced computational techniques and observations to uncover new insights into the Universe’s evolution.
Details of their study were published in Physical Review Letters on May 2.
Reference: “Enhanced Gravitational Waves from Inflaton Oscillons” by Kaloian D. Lozanov and Volodymyr Takhistov, 2 May 2023, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.181002
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2 Comments
According to the topological vortex gravitational field theory, the most raw field and interaction in the universe can be written in terms of the topological vortex and its anti-vortex field pairs. The gravitation that comes from the topological vortex and anti-vortex field pairs is the beginning of all things, and is the most raw power for maintaining and connecting the world.
Again, as in here and elsewhere, in my model of the universe pulsing gravity is locally induced all objects by some even higher frequency force to radiate outward to the extremes of the universe in widening coils and spirals of sideways attractive lines which tend to cohere into generally spherical fields which tend to diminish in strength in accordance with the inverse square law of attraction and density.
Down-to-earth experiments with rotating wheels have demonstrated time and again that rotation can increase the strength of a single wheel’s field to cause it to interact more strongly with earth’s surface level ambient field of gravity to instigate actions described (but not explained) with labels such as angular momentum, angular velocity, centrifugal force, centripetal force and gyroscopic action. And, extrapolating upon those, experiments with clocks merely demonstrate that a clock, not ‘time,’ will slow down when compelled to move at an accelerated rate through an existing field of gravity.
Early on the tendency of photons, electrons and large molecules to form scattered dot patterns in classic double-slit experiments were misinterpreted to falsely indicate a non-existent ‘duality’ of particles and waves. There are no gravitons, there is no dark energy or dark matter and there can be no gravity waves, as in deep space the lines of gravity force of still expanding spheres are too widely separated to carry a wave of the magnitude implied by the collision of two large cosmic objects such as neutron stars or black holes.
Again, too, as scientifically evidenced by gravitational lensing, too, even photons can be affected by individual lines of gravity force to accelerate (blue shift) when leaving their sources and decelerate (red shift) when arriving to earth. Therefore, the age and size of the universe have yet to be determined. It was genius of Einstein to realize the relationship that exists between matter, light and energy and too of Hubbel to do the same with the color of large objects moving in deep space. Unfortunately, for many, there was that initial misinterpretation of the results of the double slit experiments.