Gravitational Waves from Oscillons and Solitons
Speaker
Date
Time
Place
Room 7S1 (Cosmology Hall)
Abstract
We present a new way to study cosmic inflation with gravitational waves (GWs). The GW signal is generated by nonlinear structures in the inflaton field, called oscillons. This novel probe allows us to test models of inflation which are challenging to test with CMB experiments. We also present a novel induced-GW signature, called Universal GWs, associated with all early-universe scenarios involving the formation of non-inflaton solitons. Universal GWs provide a new avenue for testing the physics of primordial solitons, such as their formation and interactions, and also an explanation of the Pulsar Timing Array data.
Biography
Dr. Kaloian Lozanov is a postdoc at the Kavli IPMU. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2017 and was then a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and the University of Illinois.
His principal research lies in the field of theoretical cosmology. He is particularly interested in understanding inflation and the subsequent stage of reheating: the period when the Universe first got populated with particles during the hot Big Bang.