Electromagnetic counterparts of high-frequency gravitational waves having additional polarization states: distinguishing and probing tensor-mode, vector-mode and scalar-mode gravitons

TL;DR

This paper explores electromagnetic responses to high-frequency gravitational waves with all six polarization states, proposing methods to distinguish and detect them using novel analytic solutions and resonance systems.

Contribution

It provides the first analytic solutions for EM perturbations caused by all six GW polarizations and demonstrates their potential for detection and polarization discrimination.

Findings

All six polarizations can generate detectable EM signals.

Pure polarization states produce distinguishable photon fluxes.

Detection is feasible in high-frequency bands with existing and proposed instruments.

Abstract

GWs from extra dimensions, very early universe, and some high-energy astrophysical process, might have at most six polarizations: plus- and cross-type (tensor-mode gravitons), x-, y-type (vector-mode), and b-, l-type (scalar-mode). Peak or partial peak regions of some of such GWs are just distributed in GHz or higher frequency band, which would be optimal band for electromagnetic(EM) response. In this paper we investigate EM response to such high-frequency GWs(HFGWs) having additional polarizations. For the first time we address:(1)concrete forms of analytic solutions for perturbed EM fields caused by HFGWs having all six possible polarizations in background stable EM fields; (2)perturbed EM signals of HFGWs with additional polarizations in three-dimensional-synchro-resonance-system(3DSR system) and in galactic-extragalactic background EM fields. These perturbative EM fields are actually EM counterparts of HFGWs, and such results provide a novel way to simultaneously distinguish and display all possible six polarizations. It is also shown: (i)In EM response, pure cross-, x-type and pure y-type polarizations can independently generate perturbative photon fluxes(PPFs, signals), while plus-, b- and l-type polarizations produce PPFs in different combination states. (ii) All such six polarizations have separability and detectability. (iii)In EM response to HFGWs from extra-dimensions, distinguishing and displaying different polarizations would be quite possible due to their very high frequencies, large energy densities and special properties of spectrum. (iv)Detection band(10^8 to 10^12 Hz or higher) of PPFs by 3DSR and observation range(7*10^7 to 3*10^9 Hz) of PPFs by FAST (Five-hundred-meter-Aperture-Spherical Telescope, China), have a certain overlapping property, so their coincidence experiments will have high complementarity.