Stochastic gravitational wave background from the single-degenerate channel of type Ia supernovae

Abstract

We demonstrate that the integrated gravitational wave signal of typeIa supernovae (SNeIa) in the single-degenerate channel out to cosmological distances gives rise to a continuous background to spaceborne gravitational wave detectors, including the Big Bang Observer and Deci-Hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory planned missions. This gravitational wave background from SNeIa acts as a noise background in the frequency range 0.1-10Hz, which heretofore was thought to be relatively free from astrophysical sources apart from neutron-star and white-dwarf binaries, and therefore a key window in which to study primordial gravitational waves generated by inflation. While inflationary energy scales of 1016GeV yield inflationary gravitational wave backgrounds in excess of our range of predicted backgrounds, for lower energy scales of ∼1015GeV, the inflationary gravitational wave background becomes comparable to the noise background from SNeIa. © 2011 American Physical Society.