Phenomenology for an extra-dimension from gravitational waves propagation on a Kaluza-Klein space-time

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gravitational waves behave in a 5-dimensional Kaluza-Klein space-time, revealing potential observable signatures of extra dimensions through polarization anomalies in gravitational waves.

Contribution

It demonstrates that compactification affects gravitational wave polarization, providing a phenomenological method to detect extra dimensions via polarization amplitude profiles.

Findings

Scalar and tensor fields couple after compactification.

Anomalous polarization amplitudes indicate extra dimensions.

Electromagnetic waves evolve independently from gravitational waves.

Abstract

In the present work we analize the behavior of 5-dimensional gravitational waves propagating on a Kaluza-Klein background and we face separately the two cases in which respectively the waves are generated before and after the process of dimensional compactification. We show that if the waves are originated on a 5-d space-time which fulfills the principle of general relativity, then the process of compactification can not reduce the dynamics to the pure 4-dimensional scalar, vector and tensor degrees of freedom. In particular, while the electromagnetic waves evolve independently, the scalar and tensor fields couple to each other; this feature appears because, when the gauge conditions are splitted, the presence of the scalar ripple prevents that the 4-d gravitational waves are traceless. The phenomenological issue of this scheme consists of an anomalous relative amplitude of the two independent polarizations which characterize the 4-d gravitational waves. Such profile of polarization amplitudes, if detected, would outline the extra-dimension in a very reliable way, because a wave with non-zero trace can not arise from ordinary matter sources. We discuss the above mentioned phenomenon either in the case of a unit constant value of the background scalar component (when the geodesic deviation is treated with precise outputs), and assuming such background field as a dynamical degree (only qualitative conclusion are provided here, because the details of the polarization amplitudes depend on the choice of specific metric forms). Finally we perturb a real Kaluza-Klein theory showing that in this context, while the electromagnetic waves propagate independently, the 4-d gravitational waves preserve their ordinary structure, while the scalar plays for them the role of source.