Tensor modes from inflation

In the first part of the project, the student will develop and study new
inflationary scenarios, motivated by symmetry principles, which can
produce a background of primordial gravitational waves with distinctive
features. For example, a large amplitude, or a specific scale
dependence, for the n-point functions associated with the tensorial
gravitational modes.

In the second part of the project, the student will phenomenologically
investigate possible ways to test the theoretical scenarios she
developed, using two complementary approaches. In the first approach,
the student will analyse their consequences for the statistics of
B-modes of the CMB, and the distribution of Large Scale Structure of the
Universe. In the second approach, the student will study under which
circumstances the primordial gravity wave signal can be detected by
current (LIGO) and future (e.g. eLISA) interferometers. Moreover, she
will analyse its distinctive properties which will allow observers to
distinguish inflationary gravity waves from other sources of
gravitational radiation.