`Seeing' the quantum ripples of spacetime

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel tabletop method for detecting gravitons by observing photon emissions from quantum harmonic oscillators in a cavity, challenging previous beliefs about graviton non-detectability.

Contribution

It introduces a simple, pump-enhanced graviton detector model that enables direct visualization of gravitons using quantum systems.

Findings

Single graviton absorption causes a quantum jump with photon emission.

De-excitation involves spontaneous high-frequency graviton emission.

The proposed detector can circumvent Dyson's argument on graviton non-detectability.

Abstract

We propose a novel way of detecting gravitons using emission of photons from charged array of quantum harmonic oscillators placed inside of a cavity while the cavity is being pumped with low frequency photons. We observe that when the detector is in its ground state, a single graviton is absorbed by the detector while it jumps a single energy level by simultaneously emitting a photon. We also observe that while the detector de-excites from an higher energy level, it spontaneously emits a high frequency graviton, by absorbing a single photon. This analytical outcome encourages us to propose a very simple tabletop graviton detector model as the transition probabilities can be significantly enhanced by pumping photons in the initial state of the system. This mechanism gives us a physical way to `visualize' the effect of gravitons with a relativistic system. We also show that Dyson's original argument on the non-detectability of gravitons can be completely circumvented using our proposed graviton detector.