Quantum gravitational interaction between two objects induced by external gravitational radiation fields

Abstract

We explore, in the framework of linearized quantum gravity, the induced gravitational interaction between two gravitationally polarizable objects in their ground states in the presence of an external quantized gravitational radiation field. The interaction energy decreases as $r^{-5}$ in the near regime, and oscillates with a decreasing amplitude proportional to $r^{-1}$ in the far regime, where $r$ is the distance between the two objects. The interaction can be either attractive or repulsive depending on the propagation direction, polarization and frequency of the external gravitational field. That is, the induced interaction can be manipulated by varying the relative direction between the orientation of the objects with respect to the propagation direction of the incident gravitational radiation.