Gravitational Waves from Oscillons with Cuspy Potentials

Abstract

We study the production of gravitational waves during oscillations of the inflaton around the minimum of a cuspy potential after inflation. We find that a cusp in the potential can trigger copious oscillon formation, which sources a characteristic energy spectrum of gravitational waves with double peaks. The discovery of such a double-peak spectrum could test the underlying inflationary physics.

5 pages,4 figures Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett