Gravitational waves from the early Universe

This is a set of related projects, whose aim is to calculate the gravitational wave power spectrum from violent events in the very early universe, and to assess the prospects for detection at future space-based detectors such as eLISA. Significant sources of gravitational waves include the electroweak phase transition, other possible earlier phase transitions, topological defects such as cosmic strings, and reheating after the end of inflation. Calculations will be done with a mixture of analytic and numerical techniques, using local, national and international supercomputing facilities.

Cosmic strings: observational signals from the very early universe

In many well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, extended objects called cosmic strings exist and are likely to have been formed in the very early universe.  This project investigates the formation, evolution, and principal observational implications of cosmic strings, with a special focus on the Cosmic Microwave Background and the distribution of galaxies in the universe, where upcoming ground-based observations and satellite missions promise data with greatly improved sensitivity. Calculations will be done with a mixture of analytic and numerical techniques, using local, national and international supercomputing facilities.