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arXiv · 2609.32905

Gravitational-Wave Modulation of Atomic Spontaneous Emission: Electrodynamical Theory, Quadrupolar Redistribution, and Rydberg Cavity Metrology

Sohrab Rahvar
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Abstract

Studying Gravitational Waves (GWs) provide a unique probe of the interplay between quantum matter and the dynamics of spacetime. We develop a QED framework for spontaneous emission in the presence of a weak classical GW by quantizing the electromagnetic field in a linearized gravitational background. We show that a passing GW dynamically phase-modulates vacuum electromagnetic modes, dressing photon states into a Floquet ladder of sidebands separated by the GW frequency. While the total spontaneous decay rate remains unchanged to first order in the GW strain, the emission pattern develops a characteristic spin-2 quadrupolar angular redistribution modulated with the GW phase. For finite interaction times, interference between the carrier and Floquet sidebands generates phase-dependent spectral asymmetries in the transient emission spectrum. To explore experimental observability, we formulate a cavity-QED master equation description and propose a differential cross-cavity detection protocol employing Rydberg ensembles or highly charged ions. These results establish cavity QED as a promising platform for exploring quantum electrodynamics in dynamical spacetime and for high-frequency gravitational-wave detection.

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Sohrab Rahvar. 2026-09-26. Gravitational-Wave Modulation of Atomic Spontaneous Emission: Electrodynamical Theory, Quadrupolar Redistribution, and Rydberg Cavity Metrology. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.32905

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