Electronic Enhancements in the Detection of Gravitational Waves by Metallic Antennae

Abstract

For mechanical Weber gravitational wave antennae, it is thought that gravity waves are weakly converted into acoustic vibrations. Acoustic vibrations in metals (such as Aluminum) are experimentally known to be attenuated by the creation of electron-hole pairs described via the electronic viscosity. These final state electronic excitations give rise to gravitational wave absorption cross sections which are considerably larger (by four orders of magnitude) than those in previous theories which have not explicitly considered electronic excitations.