Gravity-induced electric currents

Abstract

We study the generation of an electric current in an ideal conducting coil, immersed in a magnetic field, due to the occurrence of a gravitational perturbation. We show that this effect can be used to detect gravitational waves impinging on the coil as well as gravitational gradients when the coil moves in a static background gravitational field. Our work opens the way to employing induced electric signals to detect dynamical gravitational fields and for gradiometry.