One-Loop Tensor Power Spectrum from a Non-Minimally Coupled Spectator Field during Inflation
Abstract
We compute the full one-loop corrections to the primordial tensor power spectrum in an inflationary scenario with a non-minimally coupled spectator field, using the in-in formalism. We derive semi-analytic results for the scalar-sourced one-loop tensor spectrum and the effective tensor-to-scalar ratio, . We consider two representative coupling functions: a localized Gaussian dip (Model G), which leads to moderate loop corrections, and a rapidly oscillatory coupling (Model O), which can yield much larger loop contributions. For Model G, we find a correction to while Model O can significantly enhance by several orders of magnitude (relative to the tree-level value). We further calculate the energy density of primordial gravitational waves. Assuming that primordial black holes with mass generated in this scenario, constitute all of the dark matter, we find that the results are several orders of magnitude lower than the sensitivities of Taiji/TianQin/LISA.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.08675,
title = {One-Loop Tensor Power Spectrum from a Non-Minimally Coupled Spectator Field during Inflation},
author = {Zhe Li and Chen Yuan and Qing-Guo Huang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.08675},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
11 pages, 4 figures