Measuring the Modified Gravitational Wave Propagation beyond General Relativity from CMB Observations

Abstract

In modified gravity theories, gravitational wave propagations are presented in nonstandard ways. We consider a friction term different from GR and constrain the modified gravitational waves propagation from observations. The modified gravitational waves produce anisotropies and polarization, which generate measurable tensor power spectra. We explore the impact of the friction term on the power spectrum of B-modes and the impact on the constraints on the other parameters (e.g., r or At) when ν0 is allowed to vary in the Monte Carlo analyses from Planck+BK18 datasets. If we assume the result of the scalar perturbations is unchanged, the inflation consistency relation alters with the friction term. In the ΛCDM+r+ν0 model, the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the amplitude of the tensor spectrum are obviously influenced.