Charge Effects on Gravitational Wave Detectors

Abstract

We show that the mean-square displacement of a charged oscillator due to the zero point oscillations of the radiation field is unique in the sense that it is very sensitive to the value of the bare mass of the charge. Thus, a controlled experiment using gravitational wave detectors could lead to a determination of the electron bare mass and shed some light on quantum electrodynamic theory. We also speculate that the irregular signals of non-gravitational origin often observed in gravitational wave bar detectors could be caused by stray charges and that such charges could also adversely affect LIGO and other such detectors