2025/06/20 by Albani, G., Borghesi, M., Canonica, L. +14
#FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.17479
In their simplest form, bulk acoustic wave (BAW) devices consist of a piezoelectric crystal between two electrodes that transduce the material's vibrations into electrical signals. They are adopted in frequency control and metrology, with well-established standards at frequencies of 5~MHz and above. Their use as a resonant-mass strain antenna for high-frequency gravitational waves has been recently proposed (Goryachev and Tobar, 2014). The estimated power spectral density sensitivity at the resonant frequencies is of the order of 10-21 \textrmstrain/√\textrmHz. In this paper, after introducing the science opportunity and potential of gravitational wave detection with BAWs, we describe the two-stage BAUSCIA project plan to build a multimode antenna based on commercial BAWs, followed by an optimized array of custom BAWs. We show that commercially available BAWs already provide sensitivity comparable to current experiments around 10~MHz. Finally, we outline options for optimization of custom devices to improve sensitivity in an unexplored region, probe multiple frequencies between 0.1 and 10 MHz, and target specific signals, such as post-merger emission from neutron stars or emission from various dark matter candidates.