Quantum mechanical interaction of matter with the scalar mode of gravitational wave in modified gravity theories

Abstract

We study the interaction of a quantum mechanical particle with gravitational wave (GW) in the framework of modified theory of gravity (MTG) where apart from the two standard tensorial modes of polarization of GW there exists another massless scalar mode. The purpose of using the MTG framework in our study is to uncover key features in matter's response to GWs that, if observed in actual GW data, can serve as observational evidence in favor of MTG over standard General Relativity.