Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity Commons^™

Sensitivity To A Frequency-Dependent Circular Polarization In An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background, Tristan L. Smith, Robert Caldwell

Dartmouth Scholarship

We calculate the sensitivity to a circular polarization of an isotropic stochastic gravitational wave background (ISGWB) as a function of frequency for ground- and space-based interferometers and observations of the cosmic microwave background. The origin of a circularly polarized ISGWB may be due to exotic primordial physics (i.e., parity violation in the early universe) and may be strongly frequency dependent. We present calculations within a coherent framework which clarifies the basic requirements for sensitivity to circular polarization, in distinction from previous work which focused on each of these techniques separately. We find that the addition of an interferometer with the …