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Warp factor and the gravitational wave spectrum

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Published 20 July 2021 © 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab
, , Citation David Andriot et al JCAP07(2021)040 DOI 10.1088/1475-7516/2021/07/040

1475-7516/2021/07/040

Abstract

A distinct signature of compact extra dimensions would be a Kaluza-Klein tower of gravitational waves. Motivated by this prospect, we compute the corresponding spectrum on a warped toroidal background. We evaluate in particular the impact of the warp factor on the spectrum. To that end, we use the complete warp factor H of standard string compactifications, generated by D-branes and orientifolds, thus connecting to recent works on stringy de Sitter constructions. The problematic region close to an orientifold where H < 0 leads to unphysical tachyonic modes in the spectrum. We develop tools that overcome this difficulty and lead to a tachyon-free spectrum. We show, in particular, that the warp factor can lower the first Kaluza-Klein mass by at least 69%.

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