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Detecting the cosmic gravitational wave background with the Big Bang Observer

Vincent Corbin and Neil J Cornish

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The detection of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) was one of the most important cosmological discoveries of the last century. With the development of interferometric gravitational wave detectors, we may be in a position to detect the gravitational equivalent of the CMB in this century. The cosmic gravitational background (CGB) is likely to be isotropic and stochastic, making it difficult to distinguish from instrument noise. The contribution from the CGB can be isolated by cross-correlating the signals from two or more independent detectors. Here we extend previous studies that considered the cross-correlation of two Michelson channels by calculating the optimal signal-to-noise ratio that can be achieved by combining the full set of interferometry variables that are available with a six link triangular interferometer. In contrast to the two channel case, we find that the relative orientation of a pair of coplanar detectors does not affect the signal-to-noise ratio. We apply our results to the detector design described in the Big Bang Observer (BBO) mission concept study and find that the BBO could detect a background with Ωgw > 2.2 × 10−17.


PACS

98.70.Vc Background radiations

98.80.Cq Particle-theory and field-theory models of the early Universe (including cosmic pancakes, cosmic strings, chaotic phenomena, inflationary universe, etc.)

07.60.Ly Interferometers

95.55.Ym Gravitational radiation detectors; mass spectrometers; and other instrumentation and techniques

04.80.Nn Gravitational wave detectors and experiments

MSC

83F05 Cosmology

83C35 Gravitational waves

85A40 Cosmology (For relativistic cosmology, see 83F05)

Subjects

Instrumentation and measurement

Gravitation and cosmology

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 7 (7 April 2006)

Received 7 December 2005, in final form 23 January 2006

Published 17 March 2006



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