Bound on Quantum Fluctuations in Gravitational Waves from LIGO-Virgo

Abstract

We derive some of the central equations governing quantum fluctuations in gravitational waves, making use of general relativity as a sensible effective quantum theory at large distances. We begin with a review of classical gravitational waves in general relativity, including the energy in each mode. We then form the quantum ground state and coherent state, before then obtaining an explicit class of squeezed states. Since existing gravitational wave detections arise from merging black holes, and since the quantum nature of black holes remains puzzling, one can be open-minded to the possibility that the wave is in an interesting quantum mechanical state, such as a highly squeezed state. We compute the time and space two-point correlation functions for the quantized metric perturbations. We then constrain its amplitude with LIGO-Virgo observations. Using existing LIGO-Virgo data, we place a bound on the (exponential) squeezing parameter of the quantum gravitational wave state of $\zeta <41$.

11 pages, 3 figures, in double column format. V2: Updated introduction and referencing. V3: Updated towards version published in JCAP

References in corpus (15)

• LIGO Detector Characterization in the Second and Third Observing Runs
• Signatures of the Quantization of Gravity at Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Quantum Mechanics of Gravitational Waves
• LIGOs Quantum Response to Squeezed States
• Indirect detection of gravitons through quantum entanglement
• On Vacuum Fluctuations in Quantum Gravity and Interferometer Arm Fluctuations
• Quantum Noise of Gravitons and Stochastic Force on Geodesic Separation
• Interferometer Response to Geontropic Fluctuations
• Quantum signatures in nonlinear gravitational waves
• Gravitational Decoherence of Dark Matter
• General Relativistic Decoherence with Applications to Dark Matter Detection
• Decoherence from General Relativity
• State-dependent graviton noise in the equation of geodesic deviation
• Symmetries from Locality. II. Gravitation and Lorentz Boosts
• Symmetries from Locality. III. Massless Spin 2 Gravitons and Time Translations

Cited by in corpus (11)

• On the Decoherence of Primordial Gravitons
• Back to the phase space: thermal axion dark radiation via couplings to standard model fermions
• Superradiant Axionic Black-Hole Clouds as Seeds for Graviton Squeezing
• Quantum Gravity Fluctuations in the Timelike Raychaudhuri Equation
• Dark Matter Freeze-In and Small-Scale Observables: Novel Mass Bounds and Viable Particle Candidates
• Quantum-gravitational noise correlation in nearby detectors
• Coherent State Description of Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Holes
• Squeezed gravitons from superradiant axion fields around rotating black holes
• Response of interferometers to the vacuum of quantum gravity
• Binary gravitational waves as probes of quantum graviton states
• Ultralight Dark Matter from the Edge of Field Space