2019/11/21 by Niayesh Afshordi, Afshordi, Niayesh
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Computational Physics and Python Applications #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1911.09384
openalex publication_date 2019/11/21 · openalex created_date 2022/07/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
One of the most ubiquitous features of quantum theories is the existence of\nzero-point fluctuations in their ground states. For massive quantum fields,\nthese fluctuations decouple from infrared observables in ordinary field\ntheories. However, there is no "decoupling theorem" in Quantum Gravity, and we\nrecently showed that the vacuum stress fluctuations of massive quantum fields\nsource a red spectrum of metric fluctuations given by \∼ mass5/frequency\nin Planck units. I show that this signal is consistent with the reported\nunattributed persistent noise, or "mystery" noise, in the Laser Interferometer\nGravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), for the Standard Model of Particle\nPhysics. If this interpretation is correct, then it implies that: 1) This will\nbe a fundamental irreducible noise for all gravitational wave interferometers,\nand 2) There is no fundamental weakly-coupled massive particle heavier than\nthose in the Standard Model.\n