Gravitational Wave-Sensitive Photonic-Like Electronic Transport in Graphene for Efficient High-Frequency Gravitational Wave Detection

TL;DR

This paper explores how high-frequency gravitational waves affect photonic-like electronic transport in graphene, revealing a potential method for detecting such waves with significantly enhanced sensitivity.

Contribution

It demonstrates that gravitational waves influence electron transport in graphene similarly to light in a varying refractive index medium, offering a new detection approach.

Findings

Relative intensity variation exceeds laser interferometers by six orders of magnitude.

Influence of phonons can be ignored at low temperatures.

Photonic-like transport is sensitive to gravitational waves in both real and k-space.

Abstract

High-frequency gravitational waves are crucial for understanding the very early universe and distinguishing between various cosmological models, but detecting them remains a significant challenge. We investigated the effects of high-frequency gravitational waves on photonic-like electronic transport in graphene. The results show that, unlike the influence of gravitational waves on the propagation of light, the influence of gravitational waves on photonic-like electronic transport can accumulate not only in real space but also in $k$-space. This makes photonic-like electronic transport under gravitational waves similar to the propagation of light in a medium where the refractive index varies dramatically due to gravitational waves, and with shorter wavelengths. As a result, the relative intensity variation in photonic-like electronic transport under gravitational waves exceeds that of a laser interferometer with the same arm length by six orders of magnitude. At low temperatures, the influence of phonons on photon-like transport in the context of high-frequency gravitational waves can be ignored. These findings indicate a strong interaction between gravitational waves and electron transport, which helps to deepen the understanding of the interaction between gravitational waves and matter, and provides a different method for detecting high-frequency gravitational waves.