Minicourse on Gravitational Wave Probes of the Early Universe

Gravitational waves start propagating (almost) freely at energies about 27 orders of magnitude larger than those characterizing the decoupling of the photons that form the Cosmic Microwave Background. Therefore, they represent a powerful and unique tool for understanding the evolution of our universe before the CMB. We derive the basic formalism to compute the gravitational wave spectrum walking through different methods, and discuss the results for the most studied sources in the earliest universe: inflation, reheating and first-order phase transition.

There is no registration.

Lecturer:

• • Simona Procacci (U. of Geneva, Switzerland)

Organizer:

• • Riccardo Sturani (IFT-UNESP, São Paulo)

Program:

Lecture 1: September  3, 2024.  10:00-12:00, Computer Lab (3rd floor)

Lecture 2: September  5, 2024.   10:00-12:00, Computer Lab (3rd floor)

Lecture 3: September  10, 2024. 10:00-12:00, Computer Lab (3rd floor)

Class 1 – Video

Class 2 – Video

Class 3 – Video

How to reach the Institute: The minicourse will be held at ICTP South American Institute, located at IFT-UNESP, which is across the street from a major bus and subway terminal (Terminal Barra Funda). The address which is closer to the entrance of the IFT-UNESP building is R. Jornalista Aloysio Biondi, 120 – Barra Funda, São Paulo. The easiest way to reach us is by subway or bus, please find instructions here.