Effects of gravitational waves on the polarization of pulsars

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gravitational waves influence the polarization of pulsar signals, proposing a method to detect stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds through polarization analysis as a complement to existing pulsar timing techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to gravitational wave detection by analyzing polarization changes in pulsar signals, expanding the toolkit beyond pulsar timing.

Findings

Polarization rotation and Stokes parameters are affected by gravitational waves.

A new method for detecting stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds is proposed.

Complementary to pulsar timing, polarization analysis offers additional detection capabilities.

Abstract

The polarization of electromagnetic waves in the presence of a gravitational wave is analyzed. The rotation of the polarization angle and the Stokes parameters are deduced. A possible application to the detection of stochastic background of gravitational waves is proposed as a complement to the pulsar timing method.