Abstract In this paper, we have improved the calculation of the relic gravitational waves (RGW) in two aspects. First, we investigate the transfer function by taking into consideration the redshift-suppression effect, the accelerating expansion effect, the damping effect of free-streaming relativistic particles, and the damping effect of cosmic phase transition, and give a simple approximate analytic expression, which clearly illustrates the dependence on the cosmological parameters. Second, we develop a numerical method to calculate the primordial power spectrum of RGW in a very wide frequency range, where the observed constraints on $n_{\rm s}$ (the scalar spectral index) and $P_{\rm S}(k_0)$ (the amplitude of primordial scalar spectrum) and the Hamilton--Jacobi equation are used. This method is applied to two kinds of inflationary models, which satisfy the current constraints on $n_{\rm s}$, $\alpha$ (the running of $n_{\rm s}$) and $r$ (the tensor--scalar ratio). We plot them in the $r-{\it\Omega}_{\rm g}$ diagram, where ${\it\Omega}_{\rm g}$ is the strength of RGW, and study their measurements from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments and laser interferometers.
Received: 16 October 2006
Revised: 27 April 2007
Accepted manuscript online:
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