Search for gravitational waves through the electromagnetic Faraday rotation

Abstract

A method is given which renders indirect detection of strong gravitational waves possible. This is based on the reflection (collision) of a linearly polarized electromagnetic shock wave from (with) a cross polarized impulsive and shock gravitational waves in accordance with the general theory of relativity. This highly nonlinear process induces a detectable Faraday rotation in the polarization vector of the electromagnetic field.

Observation of gravitational waves by light polarization

“…Calura and Montanari [8] presented the exact solution to the linearized Maxwell equations in spacetime slightly curved by a gravitational wave only in the framework of the linearized general relativity, without invoking the geometrical-optics approximation, and applied this to the case of a linearly polarized electromagnetic field bounced between two parallel conducting planes. Halilsoy and Gurtug [9] analyzed the Faraday rotation in the polarization vector of a linearly polarized electromagnetic shock wave upon encountering with gravitational waves. Hacyan [10,11] determined the influence of a gravitational wave on the elliptic polarization of light, deducing the rotation of the polarization angle and the corresponding Stokes parameters, and applied this effect to the detection of gravitational waves, as a complement to the pulsar timing method.…”

Emergent cosmological constant from colliding electromagnetic waves

“…Here, the primordial gravitational waves are assumed to be impulsive and shock types for the sake of an analytic exact solution. It has been shown in [4], that the Faraday rotation in the polarization vector of em waves can be attributed to the encounters with the strong gravitational waves with cross polarization.…”

Scattering by an electromagnetic radiation field

“…This work has been further generalized in Refs. [11,12], where colliding wave packets consisting of hybrid mixtures of electromagnetic, gravitational and scalar waves in a strong field regime were considered. We will study first the geodesics of such a solution, which can be determined fully analytically, so that the first approximation approach to the scattering problem can be given a complete answer.…”