Anisotropies in the gravitational wave background from preheating
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Updated: May 9, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Laura Bethke1, Daniel G Figueroa, Arttu Rajantie
1Theoretical Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We investigate the anisotropies in the gravitational wave (GW) background produced at preheating after inflation. Using lattice field theory simulations of a massless preheating model, we show that the GW amplitude depends sensitively on the value of the decay product field χ coupled to the inflaton φ, with the only requisite that χ is light during inflation. We find a strong anisotropy in the amplitude of the GW background on large angular scales, the details of which strongly depend on the reheating dynamics. We expect similar conclusions for a wide class of inflationary models with light scalar fields. If future direct detection GW experiments are capable of detecting the GW produced by preheating, they should also be able to detect this effect. This could eventually provide a powerful way to distinguish between different inflationary and preheating scenarios.
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