Relic gravitational waves in the expanding Universe

Cosmology and gravitational waves......Page 6
Gravitational waves detection......Page 8
Outline of the thesis......Page 11
The wave equation......Page 12
Gravitational waves creation......Page 14
A simple example: the quantum pendulum......Page 15
Bogoliubov coefficients......Page 16
The adiabatic vacuum approximation......Page 19
The creation mechanism......Page 20
Three-stage spatially flat FRW scenario......Page 24
Mini black holes in the very early Universe......Page 26
Power spectrum of the four-stage scenario......Page 29
Free parameters of the four-stage scenario......Page 33
Restrictions on the “MBHs+rad” era from the cosmic microwave background......Page 34
Conclusions......Page 39
Accelerated expansion and decaying dark energy......Page 40
Bogoliubov coefficients in the decaying dark energy scenario......Page 42
Current power spectrum......Page 45
Power spectrum in the second dust era......Page 47
Energy density of the gravitational waves......Page 51
Conclusions......Page 58
Gravitational waves in the dark energy era......Page 60
Entropy of the GWs......Page 63
GWs entropy in the dark energy era......Page 64
The generalized second law......Page 67
Conclusions......Page 70
Phantom dark energy......Page 72
Phantom and non-phantom dark energy with constant w......Page 74
Phantom and non--phantom dark energy with variable w......Page 78
Quasi-duality between phantom and non-phantom thermodynamics......Page 84
Conclusions......Page 86
Summary......Page 88
Sudden transition approximation......Page 90