Gravitational Wave -- Gauge Field Dynamics

Abstract

The dynamics of a gravitational wave propagating through a cosmic gauge field are dramatically different than in vacuum. We show that a gravitational wave acquires an effective mass, is birefringent, and its normal modes are a linear combination of gravitational waves and gauge field excitations, leading to the phenomenon of gravitational wave -- gauge field oscillations. These surprising results provide insight into gravitational phenomena and may suggest new approaches to a theory of quantum gravity.

Awarded Fifth Prize in 2017 Gravity Research Foundation Essay Contest

References in corpus (19)

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• Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae
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• The POLARBEAR-2 and the Simons Array Experiment
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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Emerging chromo-natural inflation
• Nonlinear perturbations from the coupling of the inflaton to a non-Abelian gauge field, with a focus on Chromo-Natural Inflation
• Non-trivial gravitational waves and structure formation phenomenology from dark energy
• Scalar field vacuum expectation value induced by gravitational wave background
• Graviton-photon oscillation in alternative theories of gravity
• Listening to Celestial Algebras