Detecting kHz gravitons from a neutron star merger with a multi-mode resonant mass detector

We propose a multi-mode bar consisting of mass elements of decreasing size for the implementation of a gravitational version of the photo-electric effect through the stimulated absorption of up to kHz gravitons from a binary neutron star merger and post-merger. We find that the multi-mode detector h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Classical and quantum gravity 2025-03, Vol.42 (5), p.55017
Main Authors: Tobar, Germain, Pikovski, Igor, Tobar, Michael E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
gravitational waves
quantum gravity
quantum optics
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Summary:We propose a multi-mode bar consisting of mass elements of decreasing size for the implementation of a gravitational version of the photo-electric effect through the stimulated absorption of up to kHz gravitons from a binary neutron star merger and post-merger. We find that the multi-mode detector has normal modes that retain the coupling strength to the gravitational wave of the largest mass-element, while only having an effective mass comparable to the mass of the smallest element. This allows the normal modes to have graviton absorption rates due to the tonne-scale largest mass, while the single graviton absorption process in the normal mode could be resolved through energy measurements of a mass-element in-principle smaller than pico-gram scale. We argue the feasibility of directly counting gravito-phonons in the bar through energy measurements of the end mass. This improves the transduction of the single-graviton signal, enhancing the feasibility of detecting single gravitons.
ISSN:0264-9381
1361-6382
DOI:10.1088/1361-6382/adae4a