2025/07/07 by Rodolfo Capdevilla, Capdevilla, Rodolfo · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2507.05347
openalex publication_date 2025/07/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
It is known that gravitational wave backgrounds (GWBs) change the polarization state of photons. This letter explores the possibility of using this effect to detect GWBs. The proposed experiment features a vertically polarized laser pulse traveling through a GWB before reaching a birefringent material which separates photons by polarization. Photons that emerge the birefringent material horizontally polarized are counted as signal photons. A space-based setup of a million km (comparable to the LISA mission) with a millisecond laser pulse is capable to detect the hypothetical pulsars responsible for the excess of gamma rays from the galactic center. Varying the duration of the pulse can reveal a variety of GWBs from the early Universe as well.