Helioseismology and Asteroseismology: Looking for Gravitational Waves in Acoustic Oscillations

Abstract

Current helioseismology observations allow the determination of the frequencies and surface velocity amplitudes of solar acoustic modes with exceptionally high precision. In some cases, the frequency accuracy is better than one part in a million. We show that there is a distinct possibility that the quadrupole acoustic modes of low order could be excited by gravitational waves (GWs), if the GWs have a strain amplitude in the range 10 −20 h −20 with h −20 ∼ 1 or h −20 ∼ 10 3 , as predicted by several types of GW sources, such as galactic ultracompact binaries or extreme mass ratio inspirals and coalescence of black holes. If the damping rate at low order is 10 −3 η N µHz, with η N ∼ 10 −3 -1, as inferred from the theory of stellar pulsations, then GW radiation will lead to a maximum rms surface velocity amplitude of quadrupole modes of the order of h −20 η −1 N ∼ 10 −9 -10 −3 cm s −1 , on the verge of what is currently detectable via helioseismology. The frequency and sensitivity range probed by helioseismological acoustic modes overlap with, and complement, the capabilities of eLISA for the brightest resolved ultracompact galactic binaries.

Black holes and gravitational waves in models of minicharged dark matter

“…Futhermore, it is in principle possible that the (gigantic) burst of dark photons affects nearby (hidden-) charged stars, via the same mechanisms we described. In such a case, a passing burst of hidden radiation would cause nearby stars to oscillate, with r.m.s fluctuations that could be measurable and extracted from asteroseismology studies, in a phenomena similar to that described recently for GWs [77,78].…”

Sound of Dark Matter: Searching for Light Scalars with Resonant-Mass Detectors

“…Modern examinations of Earth's higher harmonics [18] and crust excitations [19][20][21] may also be interesting, but likely have worse strain sensitivity. Lunar [22] as well as asteroseismic observations [23][24][25] have shown more promise towards detecting (quadrupole) metric variations; monopole strain excitations of these systems merit further investigation.…”

Earth’s spheroidal motion induced by a gravitational wave in flat spacetime

“…In the third and fourth papers [37,38], based on their earlier theoretical work, they showed that asteroseismology can place upper bounds on the amplitude of a stochastic background of GWs in the mHz and µHz frequency range. Recently, Lopes and Silk [39][40][41] and Lopes [42] published studies on the stars quadrupole acoustic modes. They showed that GWs with a strain spectral amplitude in the range 10 −20 -10 −17 can lead to the excitation of Sun's low order quadrupole acoustic modes [39].…”