Signatures of quantum gravity in gravitational wave memory

Creators: Deppe, Nils¹; Heisenberg, Lavinia²; Kidder, Lawrence E.¹; Maibach, David²; Ma, Sizheng³; Moxon, Jordan⁴; Nelli, Kyle C.⁴; Throwe, William¹; Vu, Nils L.⁴

1. Cornell University
2. Heidelberg University
3. Perimeter Institute
4. California Institute of Technology

Abstract

We study the impact of quantum corrections to gravitational waveforms on the gravitational wave memory effect. In certain quantum gravity theories and semiclassical frameworks, black holes (or other exotic compact objects) exhibit reflective properties that cause quasinormal modes of a binary merger waveform to partially reflect off the horizon. If these reflections reach the detector, the measured gravitational wave signal may show echolike features following the initial ringdown phase. Detecting such echoes, or their indirect signatures, would offer compelling evidence for the quantum nature of black holes. Given that direct detection of echoes requires finely tuned waveform templates, exploring alternative imprints of this phenomenon is crucial. In this work, we pursue this goal by calculating corrections to the null memory arising from echolike features, formulated in terms of the Newman-Penrose scalar Ψ0. We demonstrate that the morphology of the resulting features is model independent rendering them conceptually much easier to detect in real interferometer data than the raw echo. The corresponding signal-to-noise ratio of echo-induced features appearing in the gravitational wave memory is estimated subsequently. We further compute the physical fluxes associated to the echo at both the black hole horizon and null infinity and identify novel distinguishing features of the underlying reflectivity models in measurement data.

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Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Henri Inchauspé and Doğa Veske for productive consultations as well as the LISA Simulation Working Group and the LISA Simulation Expert Group for the lively discussions on all simulation-related activities. L. H. would like to acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program Grant Agreement No. 801781. L. H. further acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy EXC 2181/1–390900948 (the Heidelberg STRUCTURES Excellence Cluster). The authors thank the Heidelberg STRUCTURES Excellence Cluster for financial support and acknowledge support by the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, through bwHPC. Research at Perimeter Institute is supported in part by the Government of Canada through the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and by the Province of Ontario through the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. PHY-2407742, No. PHY-2207342, and No. OAC-2209655 at Cornell. This work was supported by the Sherman Fairchild Foundation at Cornell. This work was supported in part by the Sherman Fairchild Foundation and by NSF Grants No. PHY-2309211, No. PHY-2309231, and No. OAC-2209656 at Caltech.

Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this article are openly available [71].

Additional Information

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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