Electromagnetic cavities as mechanical bars for gravitational waves

Abstract

Superconducting cavities can operate analogously to Weber bar detectors of gravitational waves, converting mechanical to electromagnetic energy. The significantly reduced electromagnetic noise results in increased sensitivity to high-frequency signals well outside the bandwidth of the lowest mechanical resonance. In this work, we revisit such signals of gravitational waves and demonstrate that a setup similar to the existing MAGO prototype, operating in a scanning or broadband manner, could have sensitivity to strains of ∼10-22-10-18 for frequencies of ∼10 kHz-1 GHz.