Quantum gravity signatures in gravitational wave detectors placed inside a harmonic trap potential

Abstract

In this work, we consider a general gravitational wave detector of gravitational waves interacting with an incoming gravitational wave carrying plus polarization only placed inside a harmonic trap. This model can be well acquainted with the description of a resonant detector of gravitational waves as well. The well-known detector-gravitational wave interaction scenario uses the method of a semiclassical approach where the detector is treated quantum mechanically but the gravitational wave is considered at a classical level. In our analysis, we use a discrete mode decomposition of the gravitational wave perturbation which results in a Hamiltonian involving the position and momentum operators corresponding to the gravitational wave and the harmonic oscillator. We have then calculated the transition probability for the harmonic oscillator-gravitational wave tensor product state for going from an initial state to some unknown final state. Using the energy flux relation of the gravitational waves, we observe that if we consider the total energy as a combination of the number of gravitons in the initial state of the detector then the transition probability for the resonant absorption case scenario takes the analytical form which is exactly similar to the semiclassical absorption case. In the case of the emission scenario, we observe a spontaneous emission of a single graviton which was completely absent in the semiclassical analog of this model. This therefore gives a direct signature of linearized quantum gravity. Published by the American Physical Society 2024