Gravitational Wave Messengers from the very early universe

Quantum vacuum fluctuations in spacetime in the very early Universe generate gravitational waves, whose probability distribution is close to a Gaussian. However, they can also be generated by other sources, and carry imprints of the energy content of the early Universe. Scientists at MPA showed that these gravitational waves can be highly non-Gaussian, with a skewness much larger than for those generated by vacuum fluctuations.