2016/06/15 by S. Singh, L. A. De Lorenzo, I. Pikovski +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.IM #cond-mat.other #gr-qc #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/aa78cb
arxiv created 2016/06/15 · arxiv updated 2017/08/02
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 reasonable experimental parameters, we find that strain fields on the order of h∼ 10-23 /√(\rm Hz) are detectable. We show that the proposed system can significantly improve the limits on gravitational wave strain from nearby pulsars within a few months of integration time.