Probing parity-odd bispectra with anisotropies of GW V modes

Abstract

Abstract It is well known that non-trivial squeezed tensor bispectra can lead to anisotropies in the inflationary stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background, providing us with an alternative and complementary window to primordial non-Gaussianities (NGs) with respect to the CMB. Previous works have highlighted the detection prospects of parity-even tensor NGs via the GW I-mode anisotropies. In this work we extend this by analysing for the first time the additional information carried by GW V-mode anisotropies due to squeezed NGs. We show that GW V modes allow us to probe parity-odd squeezed 〈 tts 〉 and 〈 ttt 〉 bispectra. These bispectra break parity at the non-linear level and can be introduced by allowing alternative symmetry breaking patterns during inflation, like those comprised in solid inflation. Considering a BBO-like experiment, we find that a non-zero detection of squeezed 〈 tts 〉 parity-odd bispectra in the V modes dipole is possible without requiring any short-scale enhancement of the GW power spectrum amplitude over the constraints set by the CMB. We also briefly discuss the role of V-CMB cross-correlations. Our work can be extended in several directions and motivates a systematic search for polarized GW anisotropies in the next generations of GW experiments.