Relic Gravitational Waves from String Cosmology

A large class of string-cosmology backgrounds leads to a spectrum of relic stochastic gravitational waves, strongly tilted towards high frequencies, and characterized by two basic parameters of the cosmological model. We estimate the required sensitivity for detection of the predicted gravitational radiation and show that a region of our parameter space is within reach for some of the planned gravitational-wave detectors.Comment: 14 pages, latex, 2 figures included as epsf file

Repulsive gravity in the very early Universe

I present two examples in which the curvature singularity of a radiation-dominated Universe is regularized by (a) the repulsive effects of spin interactions, and (b) the repulsive effects arising from a breaking of the local gravitational gauge symmetry. In both cases the collapse of an initial, asymptotically flat state is stopped, and the Universe bounces towards a state of decelerated expansion. The emerging picture is typical of the pre-big bang scenario, with the main difference that the string cosmology dilaton is replaced by a classical radiation fluid, and the solutions are not duality-invariant.Comment: 9 pages, LATEX, one figure included using epsf. Awarded the Fourth Prize in the 1998 Awards for Essays on Gravitation (Gravity Research Foundation, Wellesley Hills, Ma). To appear in Gen. Rel. Grav. An updated collection of papers on the pre-big bang scenario is available at http://www.to.infn.it/~gasperi

Recent developments in quantum string cosmology

In this talk we discuss the quantisation of a class of string cosmology models characterised by scale factor duality invariance. The amplitudes for the full set of classically allowed and forbidden transitions are computed by applying the reduced phase space and path integral methods. In particular, the path integral calculation clarifies the meaning of the instanton-like behaviour of the transition amplitudes that has been first pointed out in previous investigations.Comment: 4 pages, one eps figures, uses espcrc2.sty. Talk given at the Third Conference on Constrained Dynamics and Quantum Gravit

On the response of gravitational antennas to dilatonic waves

It is pointed out that the coupling of macroscopic test masses to the gravi-dilaton background of string theory is non geodesic, in general, and cannot be parametrized by a Brans-Dicke model of scalar-tensor gravity. The response of gravitational antennas to dilatonic waves should be analyzed through a generalized equation of geodesic deviation, taking into account the possible direct coupling of the background to the (composition-dependent) dilatonic charge of the antenna.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, no figure

Relaxed Bounds on the Dilaton Mass in a String Cosmology Scenario

We discuss bounds on the dilaton mass, following from the cosmological amplification of the quantum fluctuations of the dilaton background, under the assumption that such fluctuations are dominant with respect to the classical background oscillations. We show that if the fluctuation spectrum grows with the frequency the bounds are relaxed with respect to the more conventional case of a flat or decreasing spectrum. As a consequence, the allowed range of masses may become compatible with models of supersymmetry breaking, and with a universe presently dominated by a relic background of dilaton dark matter.Comment: 12 pages, plain tex, 2 figures (available on request) DFTT-03/9

Late-time effects of Planck-scale cosmology: dilatonic interpretation of the dark energy field

We present a model of dark energy based on the string effective action, and on the assumption that the dilaton is strongly coupled to dark matter. We discuss the main differences between this class of models and more conventional models of quintessence,uncoupled to dark matter. This paper is based on talks presented at the "VII Congresso Nazionale di Cosmologia" (Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monte Porzio Catone, November 2002), and at the Meeting "Dark Energy Day" (University of Milano-Bicocca, November 2002). To appear in the Proc. of the International Conference on ``Thinking, Observing and Mining the Universe" (Sorrento, September 2003), eds. G. Longo and G. Miele (World Scientific, Singapore).Comment: 8 pages, latex, 4 figures included using eps

S-duality Invariant Perturbations in String Cosmology

We investigate the generation of curvature and isocurvature (dilaton, moduli and axion) perturbations in a general class of axion-dilaton-moduli models,including the pre-big bang scenario. Allowing for an arbitrary coupling constant between the dilaton field and the axion field, we exploit the SL(2,R) symmetry of the theory to obtain the spectral indices of the field perturbations in a pre-big bang type scenario. Axion field fluctuations about a homogeneous background field can yield a scale-invariant (Harrison-Zel'dovich) spectrum. As an example we present a string-motivated case with SL(2,R)xSL(2,R) symmetry, where a second axion field arises from the compactification of the ten-dimensional theory to four dimensions.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, plain LaTe

Birth of the Universe in string cosmology

The decay of the string perturbative vacuum into our present cosmological state is associated to the transition from a phase of growing curvature and growing dilaton, to a phase of decreasing curvature and frozen dilaton. The possible approaches to a classical and quantum description of such a transition are introduced and briefly discussed.Comment: 17 pages, LATEX, seven figures included using EPSF, based on a talk given at the "Fourth Paris Cosmology Colloquium" (Observatoire de Paris, June 1997). To appear in the Proceedings (ed. by H. J. De Vega and N. Sanchez). An updated collection of papers on the pre-big bang scenario is available at http://www.to.infn.it/teorici/gasperin

Why supersymmetry should be restored at the TeV scale

It is explained why the curvature associated to the vacuum energy density arising from SUSY breaking cannot be completely transferred to the extra spatial dimensions of a bulk space-time manifold, and it is shown -- without using hierarchy arguments but only the results of current large-scale observations -- why the Tev scale should correspond to the maximal allowed SUSY-breaking scale.Comment: 6 pages. Essay written for the 2008 Awards for Essays on Gravitation (Gravity Research Foundation, USA), and awarded with "Honorable Mention

Relic dilatons in string cosmology

The allowed mass windows for a cosmic background of relic dilatons are estimated in the context of the pre-big bang scenario. The dilatons are produced from the quantum fluctuations of the vacuum, and the extension of the windows is controlled by the string mass scale. The possible relaxation of phenomenological bounds due to an intermediate stage of reheating is discussed. Even without such a relaxation, the allowed range of masses includes a light sector in which the dilatons are not yet decayed, and could provide the dominant contribution to the present large scale density.Comment: 13 pages, LATEX, two figures included using epsf. To appear in Proc. of the 12th It. Conf. on Gen. Rel. and Grav. Phys. (Rome, Sept. 1996), ed. by M. Bassan et al. (World Scientific, Singapore). An updated collection of papers on the pre-big-bang scenario in string cosmology is available at http://www.to.infn.it/teorici/gasperini