Maxwellian approximations to linear general relativity are revisited in light of recent results on the degrees of freedom (DoF) in the linear gravitational field. The well-known Maxwellian formalism obtained in harmonic coordinates is compared with a Maxwellian formalism obtained under a coordinate choice where each of the metric components corresponds to each of the coordinate-invariant DoF of the linear gravitational field. The coordinate freedom of general relativity can be exploited to cast the field equations into Maxwellian form, but such forms can be mere mirages of the coordinate choice—mirages such as vector gravitational waves. A coordinate choice that yields perfectly-Maxwellian field equations, will yield a force equation that is not Lorentzian. If field definitions are chosen to obtain Lorentz-like terms in the force equation, then Maxwellian forms are compromised in the field equations. Many treatments of gravito-electromagnetism will make inconsistent ordering choices between the field equations and force equations, or else truncate terms of relevant order from the force equation. Often such mistakes reflect an attempt to force exact Maxwellian analogs simultaneously in both the field equations and the force equation, with the result that terms dropped are as large as those kept.

Applying the Helmholtz Decomposition theorem to linearized General Relativity leads to a gauge‐invariant formulation where the transverse‐traceless part of the metric perturbation describes gravitational waves in matter. Gravitational waves incident on a superconductor can be described by a linear London‐like constituent equation characterized by a “gravitational shear modulus” and a corresponding plasma frequency and penetration depth. Electric‐like and magnetic‐like gravitational tensor fields are defined in terms of the strain field of a gravitational wave. It is shown that in the DC limit, the magnetic‐like tensor field is expelled from the superconductor in a gravitational Meissner‐like effect. The Cooper pair density is described by the Ginzburg‐Landau theory embedded in curved space‐time. The ionic lattice is modeled by quantum harmonic oscillators coupled to gravitational waves and characterized by quasi‐energy eigenvalues for the phonon modes. The formulation predicts the possibility of a dynamical Casimir effect since the zero‐point energy of the ionic lattice phonons is found to be modulated by the gravitational wave, in a quantum analog of a “Weber‐bar effect.” Applying periodic thermodynamics and the Debye model in the low‐temperature limit leads to a free energy density for the ionic lattice. Lastly, we relate the gravitational strain of space to the strain of matter to show that the response to a gravitational wave is far less for the Cooper pair density than for the ionic lattice. This predicts a charge separation effect in the superconductor as a result of the gravitational wave.

The response of a superconductor to a gravitational wave is shown to obey a London-like constituent equation. The Cooper pairs are described by the Ginzburg–Landau free energy density embedded in curved spacetime. The lattice ions are modeled by quantum harmonic oscillators characterized by quasi-energy eigenvalues. This formulation is shown to predict a dynamical Casimir effect since the zero-point energy of the ionic lattice phonons is modulated by the gravitational wave. It is also shown that the response to a gravitational wave is far less for the Cooper pair density than for the ionic lattice. This predicts a “charge separation effect” which can be used to detect the passage of a gravitational wave.

A thought experiment is proposed to demonstrate the existence of a gravitational, vector AharonovBohm effect. We begin the analysis starting from four Maxwell-like equations for weak gravitational fields interacting with slowly moving matter. A connection is made between the gravitational, vector Aharonov-Bohm effect and the principle of local gauge invariance for nonrelativistic quantum matter interacting with weak gravitational fields. The compensating vector fields that are necessitated by this local gauge principle are shown to be incorporated by the DeWitt minimal coupling rule. The nonrelativistic Hamiltonian for weak, time-independent fields interacting with quantum matter is then extended to time-dependent fields, and applied to problem of the interaction of radiation with macroscopically coherent quantum systems, including the problem of gravitational radiation interacting with superconductors. But first we examine the interaction of EM radiation with superconductors in a parametric oscillator consisting of a superconducting wire placed at the center of a high Q superconducting cavity driven by pump microwaves. Some room-temperature data will be presented demonstrating the splitting of a single microwave cavity resonance into a spectral doublet due to the insertion of a central wire. This would represent an unseparated kind of parametric oscillator, in which the signal and idler waves would occupy the same volume of space. We then propose a separated parametric oscillator experiment, in which the signal and idler waves are generated in two disjoint regions of space, which are separated from each other by means of an impermeable superconducting membrane. We find that the threshold for parametric oscillation for EM microwave generation is much lower for the separated configuration than the unseparated one, which then leads to an observable dynamical Casimir effect. We speculate that a separated parametric oscillator for generating coherent GR microwaves could also be built.

In this paper, we address the question as to whether or not measurable sources for gravitational waves could possibly be made in the laboratory. Based on an analogy of the dynamical Casimir effect with the stimulated emission of radiation in the laser, our answer to this question is in the affirmative, provided that superconducting radio-frequency cavities in fact possess high quality factors for both electromagnetic and gravitational microwave radiation, as one would expect due to a quantum-mechanical gravitational Meissner-like effect. In order to characterize the response of matter to tensor gravitational fields, we introduce a prefactor to the source term of the gravitational wave equation, which we call the "relative gravitational permeativity" analogous to the "relative electric permittivity" and "relative magnetic permeability" that characterize the vector response of matter to applied fields in electromagnetism. This allows for a possibly large quantum mechanical enhancement of the response of a superconductor to an incident tensor gravitational wave field. Finally, we describe our experimental work with high-Q superconducting radio-frequency cavities, and propose a design for a coupled-cavity system with a flexible superconducting membrane in its middle as its amplifying element. This will then allow us to test for a Meissner-like expulsion, and therefore reflection, of incident tensor gravitational wave fields, and, above a certain threshold, to generate coherent gravitational radiation via the dynamical Casimir effect.