Abstract
Direct detection of gravitational waves is opening a new window onto our universe. Here, we study the sensitivity to continuous-wave strain fields of a kg-scale optomechanical system formed by the acoustic motion of superfluid helium-4 parametrically coupled to a superconducting microwave cavity. This narrowband detection scheme can operate at very high Q-factors, while the resonant frequency is tunable through pressurization of the helium in the 0.1–1.5 kHz range. The detector can therefore be tuned to a variety of astrophysical sources and can remain sensitive to a particular source over a long period of time. For thermal noise limited sensitivity, we find that strain fields on the order of are detectable. Measuring such strains is possible by implementing state of the art microwave transducer technology. We show that the proposed system can compete with interferometric detectors and potentially surpass the gravitational strain limits set by them for certain pulsar sources within a few months of integration time.
Highlights
The recent detection of gravitational waves (GWs) marks the beginning of GW astronomy [1, 2]
Several mechanisms give upper bounds to the strength of GWs on earth. One such limit is the ‘spin down limit’, which is given by the observed spin-down rate of the pulsar, and the assumption that all of the rotational kinetic energy which is lost is in the form of GWs [16]
As a precursor to subsequent discussions, we present the central result of our work in figure 2, showing the limits set by different detectors for ten millisecond pulsars (MSPs) of interest from table 1
Summary
We study the this work must maintain sensitivity to continuous-wave strain fields of a kg-scale optomechanical system formed by the attribution to the author(s) and the title of acoustic motion of superfluid helium-4 parametrically coupled to a superconducting microwave the work, journal citation and DOI. For thermal noise limited sensitivity, we find that strain fields on the order of h ~ 10-23 Hz are detectable. Measuring such strains is possible by implementing state of the art microwave transducer technology. We show that the proposed system can compete with interferometric detectors and potentially surpass the gravitational strain limits set by them for certain pulsar sources within a few months of integration time
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