Gravito-magnetic resonance in the field of a gravitational wave

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of gravito-magnetic resonance caused by gravitational waves, proposing a new detection method utilizing collective spin excitations in magnetized materials to identify high-frequency gravitational waves.

Contribution

It presents a classical and quantum framework for gravito-magnetic resonance and suggests a novel gravitational wave detector based on spin precession in ferromagnetic materials.

Findings

Gravitational waves can induce precession of electron spins.

Resonant excitation in ferromagnetic spheres can detect gravito-magnetic effects.

Potential for high-frequency gravitational wave detection using spin-based methods.

Abstract

Using the construction of the Fermi frame, the field of a gravitational wave can be described in terms of gravito-electromagnetic fields that are transverse to the propagation direction and orthogonal to each other. In particular, the gravito-magnetic field acts on spinning particles and we show that, due to the action of the gravitational wave field, a new phenomenon, that we call gravito-magnetic resonance, may appear. We give both a classical and a quantum description of this phenomenon and suggest that it can be used as the basis for a new type of gravitational wave detectors. Our results highlight the effectiveness of collective spin excitations, e.g. spin waves in magnetized materials, in detecting high frequency gravitational waves. Here we suggest that, when gravitational waves induce a precession of the electron spin, power is released in the ferromagnetic resonant mode endowed with quadrupole symmetry of a magnetized sphere. This offers a possible path to the detection of the gravito-magnetic effects of a gravitational wave.