Signatures of High-Frequency Gravitational Waves in Electromagnetic Cavities
Abstract
Similar to axions, gravitational waves (GW) can induce oscillating electromagnetic fields inside electromagnetic cavities. We explore their experimental sensitivity to monochromatic and non-monochromatic GW signals, using the total deposited energy as a primary measure. Focusing on cylindrical and spherical cavities, we present the coupling coefficients of GWs to the dominant electromagnetic resonances in transverse-traceless gauge, which is most appropriate in this regime. By considering the superposition of degenerate modes, we further examine their angular sensitivity. In addition, we calculate the response of a spherical cavity to non-monochromatic GWs emitted by primordial black hole mergers. We find that, for transient signals, a high quality factor with does not necessarily enhance experimental sensitivity. In fact, even in the most optimistic scenario, only mergers within the solar system yield an observable energy deposit in the cavity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.20592,
title = {Signatures of High-Frequency Gravitational Waves in Electromagnetic Cavities},
author = {Sebastian Schenk and Kristof Schmieden and Pedro Schwaller},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.20592},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
30 pages, 10 figures