Detection of gravity waves by phase modulation of the light from a distant star

Abstract

We propose a novel method for detecting gravitational waves (GW), where a light signal emitted from a distant star interacts with a local (also distant) GW source and travels towards the Earth, where it is detected. While traveling in the field of the GW, the light acquires specific phase modulation (which we account in the eikonal approximation). This phase modulation can be considered as a coherent spreading of the given initial photons energy over a set of satellite lines, spaced at the frequency of GW (from quantum point of view it is multi-graviton absorption and emission processes). This coherent state of photons with the energy distributed among the set of equidistant lines, can be analyzed and identified on Earth either by passing the signal through a Fabry-Perot filter or by monitoring the intensity-intensity correlations at different times.