Detecting continuous gravitational waves with superfluid ^4He
Abstract
Direct detection of gravitational waves is opening a new window onto our universe. Here, we study the sensitivity to continuous-wave strain fields of a kg-scale optomechanical system formed by the acoustic motion of superfluid helium-4 parametrically coupled to a superconducting microwave cavity. This narrowband detection scheme can operate at very high Q-factors, while the resonant frequency is tunable through pressurization of the helium in the 0.1–1.5 kHz range. The detector can therefore be tuned to a variety of astrophysical sources and can remain sensitive to a particular source over a long period of time. For thermal noise limited sensitivity, we find that strain fields on the order of h ~ 10^(-23)/√Hz are detectable. Measuring such strains is possible by implementing state of the art microwave transducer technology. We show that the proposed system can compete with interferometric detectors and potentially surpass the gravitational strain limits set by them for certain pulsar sources within a few months of integration time.
Additional Information
© 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Received 1 February 2017; Accepted 12 June 2017; Accepted Manuscript online 12 June 2017; Published 21 July 2017. We would like to acknowledge helpful conversations with Rana Adhikari, Yanbei Chen, Dan Lathrop, Keith Riles, John Ketterson, Pierre Meystre, Jack Harris, David Blair and Nergis Mavalvala. We acknowledge funding provided by the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, an NSF Physics Frontiers Center (NSF IQIM-1125565) with support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF-1250) NSF DMR-1052647, DARPA-QUANTUM HR0011-10-1-0066, the NSF ITAMP grant, and Army Research Office.Attached Files
Published - Singh_2017_New_J._Phys._19_073023.pdf
Submitted - 1606.04980.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 75044
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170313-065536926
- Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM)
- NSF
- PHY-1125565
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- GBMF-1250
- NSF
- DMR-1052647
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- HR0011-10-1-0066
- Army Research Office (ARO)
- Created
-
2017-03-13Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2022-07-12Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Institute for Quantum Information and Matter