Macroscopic Quantum Response to Gravitational Waves

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a macroscopic one-electron quantum cyclotron can detect gravitational waves, showing that larger electron wave functions enhance sensitivity to these waves, offering a new quantum-based detection method.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using a macroscopic quantum cyclotron to detect gravitational waves, highlighting the role of wave function size in sensitivity enhancement.

Findings

Excitation rate increases with wave function size

Large electron wave functions improve gravitational wave detection sensitivity

Proposes a feasible quantum detection scheme for gravitational waves

Abstract

We study the excitation of a one-electron quantum cyclotron by gravitational waves. The electron in such as a penning trap is prepared to be at the lowest Landau level, which has an infinite degeneracy parameterized by the size of the wave function. We find that the excitation rate from the ground state to the first excited state is enhanced by the size of the electron wave function: an electron with a larger wave function feels gravitational waves more. As a consequence, we derive a good sensitivity to gravitational waves at a macroscopic one-electron quantum cyclotron.