The Spectrum of Gravitational Radiation from Primordial Turbulence

Understand

Energy injection into the early universe can induce turbulent motions of the primordial plasma, which in turn act as a source for gravitational radiation.

• Earlier work computed the amplitude and characteristic frequency of the relic gravitational wave background, as a function of the total energy injected and the stirring scale of the turbulence.
• This paper computes the frequency spectrum of relic gravitational radiation from a turbulent source of the stationary Kolmogoroff form which acts for a given duration, making no other approximations.
• We also show that the limit of long source wavelengths, commonly employed in aeroacoustic problems, is an excellent approximation.