Geometric noise spectrum in interferometers
Abstract
We study the power spectral density of time delay fluctuations in an interferometer as a potential low-energy quantum gravitational observable. We derive a general expression for the spectrum in terms of the Wightman function of linear metric perturbations, which we then apply to a variety of cases. We analyze the intrinsic graviton fluctuations in the vacuum, thermal, and squeezed states, as well as the fluctuations induced by the vacuum stress-energy of a massless scalar field. We find that the resulting spectra are free of ultraviolet divergences and that, while thermal and squeezed states provide a natural amplification mechanism, the spectra remain suppressed by the Planck scale.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.17849,
title = {Geometric noise spectrum in interferometers},
author = {Laurent Freidel and Robin Oberfrank},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.17849},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
63 pages, 3 figures. v2: typos corrected + references updated + change of notation for section 4.1.II