On the possibility of Vacuum-QED measurements with gravitational wave detectors

TL;DR

This paper explores the feasibility of using gravitational wave detectors to measure vacuum QED effects, specifically the vacuum's refractive index change in magnetic fields, proposing potential magnet designs and discussing implementation challenges.

Contribution

It provides a new analysis of using gravitational wave detectors for vacuum QED measurements, including design considerations and feasibility assessment.

Findings

Vacuum QED effects could be measured with gravitational wave detectors.

Permanent magnets may enable such measurements, but implementation remains challenging.

The proposed method offers a novel approach to detecting virtual particle effects in vacuum.

Abstract

Quantum electro dynamics (QED) comprises virtual particle production and thus gives rise to a refractive index of the vacuum larger than unity in the presence of a magnetic field. This predicted effect has not been measured to date, even after considerable effort of a number of experiments. It has been proposed by other authors to possibly use gravitational wave detectors for such vacuum QED measurements, and we give this proposal some new consideration in this paper. In particular we look at possible source field magnet designs and further constraints on the implementation at a gravitational wave detector. We conclude that such an experiment seems to be feasible with permanent magnets, yet still challenging in its implementation.