Chiral primordial gravitational waves from a Lifshitz point
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Published on: August 12, 2013
Tomohiro Takahashi1, Jiro Soda
1Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan.
Abstract:
We study primordial gravitational waves produced during inflation in quantum gravity at a Lifshitz point proposed by Horava. Assuming power-counting renormalizability, foliation-preserving diffeomorphism invariance, and the condition of detailed balance, we show that primordial gravitational waves are circularly polarized due to parity violation. The chirality of primordial gravitational waves is a quite robust prediction of quantum gravity at a Lifshitz point which can be tested through observations of cosmic microwave background radiation and stochastic gravitational waves.
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