Statistically Anisotropic Tensor Modes from Inflation

Abstract

We consider the inflationary universe with a spectator scalar field coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field and calculate curvature perturbation and gravitational waves (GWs). We find that the sourced GWs can be larger than the one from vacuum fluctuation and they are statistically anisotropic as well as linearly polarized. The GW power spectrum acquires higher multipole moments as ${\mathcal{P}}_h\propto (1-{\cos }^2\theta +{\cos }^4\theta -{\cos }^6\theta )$ irrespective of the model parameters.

Comments: 23 pages and 7 figures