Electromagnetic field in a cavity induced by gravitational waves

Abstract

The detection method of gravitational waves (GW) using electromagnetic (EM) cavities has garnered significant attention in recent years. This paper thoroughly examines the analysis for the perturbation of the EM field and raises some issues in the existing literature. Our work demonstrates that the rigidity condition imposed on the material, as provided in the literature, is inappropriate due to its reliance on a gauge-dependent quantity that cannot be controlled experimentally. Instead, we incorporate elasticity into the material and revise the governing equations for the electric field induced by GWs, expressing them solely in terms of gauge-invariant quantities. Applying these equations to cylindrical cavities, we present the GW antenna patterns for the detector.