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Microwave background anisotropies from gravitational waves: the 1+3 covariant approach

We present a 1+3 covariant discussion of the contribution of gravitational waves to the anisotropy of the CMB in an almost-Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. Our discussion is based in the covariant approach to perturbations in cosmology, which provides a physically transparent and gauge-invariant methodology for CMB physics. Applying this approach to linearised gravitational waves, we derive a closed set of covariant equations describing the evolution of the shear and the Weyl tensor, and the angular multipoles of the CMB intensity, valid for an arbitrary matter description and background spatial curvature. A significant feature of the present approach is that the normal mode expansion of the radiation distribution function, which arises naturally here, preserves the simple quadrupolar nature of the anisotropic part of the Thomson scattering source terms, and provides a direct characterisation of the power in the CMB at a given angular multipole, as in the recently introduced total angular momentum method. We provide the integral solution of the multipole equations, and analytic solutions for the shear and the Weyl tensor, for models with arbitrary spatial curvature. Numerical results for the CMB power spectrum in open models are also presented.