Perspectives of measuring gravitational effects of laser light and particle beams

Abstract

We study possibilities of creation and detection of oscillating gravitational fields from lab-scale high energy, relativistic sources. The sources considered are high energy laser beams in an optical cavity and the ultra-relativistic proton bunches circulating in the beam of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. These sources allow for signal frequencies much higher and far narrower in bandwidth than what most celestial sources produce. In addition, by modulating the beams, one can adjust the source frequency over a very broad range, from Hz to GHz. The gravitational field of these sources and responses of a variety of detectors are analyzed. We find that with the planned high-luminosity upgrade of the LHC and an improved design of a recently experimentally demonstrated monolithic pendulum [1], a signal to noise ratio substantially larger than 1 should be achievable. This opens new perspectives of studying general relativistic effects and possibly quantum-gravitational effects with ultra-relativistic, well-controlled terrestrial sources.

Storage Rings and Gravitational Waves: Summary and Outlook

“…We recall in this connection that the classical gravitational perturbation generated by a relativistic particle source is well understood [54], and can be applied to bunches of particles in a storage ring, as discussed recently in [55]. This reference considers various possible detection schemes, including a monolithic pendulum, and it would be interesting to extend these studies to other detectors that could be located close to the LHC beams, such as Proposals 4 and 5 and those reviewed in [29].…”

Newton, entanglement, and the graviton

“…Beyond the many practical difficulties [71], the decay of this laser field into e + e − pairs would render this fundamentally impossible [72,73]. However, the fact that the required effective mass works out to be in the ballpark of m pl ≈ 0.2 µg motivates some analogue of this experiment with two composite masses, much like the Newtonian experiments currently in development.…”