Probing Reheating with Primordial Gravitational Waves

by Dr Nicolas Bernal (NYU Abu Dhabi)

Friday 7 Nov 2025, 14:30 → 15:30 Asia/Kolkata

A304 and on zoom

 The transition from the end of inflation to a hot, thermal Universe—commonly referred to as (re)heating—represents a critical yet often misunderstood phase in early-Universe cosmology. In this talk, I will introduce a novel mechanism for gravitational wave production arising from gravitons generated during the pre-thermal stage of cosmic reheating. Remarkably, in scenarios featuring a low inflaton mass, the resulting gravitational wave spectrum may lie within the sensitivity range of upcoming experiments such as the Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer, Big Bang Observer, and ultimate DECIGO.