Award-Winning EssaysNo Access

Gravitational wave–gauge field dynamics

R. R. Caldwell

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, 6127 Wilder Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755, USA

E-mail Address: robert.r.caldwell@dartmouth.edu

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C. Devulder

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, 6127 Wilder Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755, USA

E-mail Address: christopher.devulder.gr@dartmouth.edu

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, and

N. A. Maksimova

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

E-mail Address: nina.maksimova@cfa.harvard.edu

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218271817420056Cited by:6 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

The dynamics of a gravitational wave propagating through a cosmic gauge field are dramatically different than in vacuum. We show that a gravitational wave acquires an effective mass, is birefringent, and its normal modes are a linear combination of gravitational waves and gauge field excitations, leading to the phenomenon of gravitational wave–gauge field oscillations. These surprising results provide an insight into gravitational phenomena and may suggest new approaches to a theory of quantum gravity.

This essay is awarded fifth prize in the 2017 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation.

Keywords:

PACS: 04.20.−q, 04.30.−w, 11.15.−q

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