Angular bispectrum and trispectrum of scalar-induced gravitational waves: all contributions from primordial non-Gaussianity f NL and g NL

Abstract

Abstract Studying the primordial non-Gaussianity of inflationary perturbations is crucial for testing the inflation paradigm of the early universe. In this work, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of the angular bispectrum and trispectrum of scalar-induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) in the presence of local-type primordial non-Gaussianity parameterized by f NL and g NL, deriving their semi-analytical formulae for the first time. Our findings indicate that it is the presence of primordial non-Gaussianity that leads to a non-Gaussian SIGW background, suggesting that the angular bispectrum and trispectrum of SIGWs could serve as probes of the primordial non-Gaussianity. Our numerical results further illustrate that f NL and g NL exert significant impacts on the spectral amplitudes, potentially reaching up to 10-5 for the former and 10-8 for the latter. In particular, we demonstrate that the angular bispectrum and trispectrum exhibit characteristic dependence on the angular multipoles and frequency bands. They hold potentials to be measured by gravitational-wave detectors that may advance our understanding of the origin of the universe.