Inflationary gravitational waves in the effective field theory of modified gravity

Abstract: In the approach of the effective field theory of modified gravity, we derive the second-order action and the equation of motion for tensor perturbations on the flat isotropic cosmological background. This analysis accommodates a wide range of gravitational theories including Horndeski theories, its generalization, and the theories with spatial derivatives higher than second order (e.g., Horava-Lifshitz gravity). We obtain the inflationary power spectrum of tensor modes by taking into account corrections induced by higher-order spatial derivatives and slow-roll corrections to the de Sitter background. We also show that the leading-order spectrum in concrete modified gravitational theories can be mapped on to that in General Relativity under a disformal transformation. Our general formula will be useful to constrain inflationary models from the future precise measurement of the B-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background.