Particles Associated With Gravitational Waves

Question

I've been reading about linearized GR and the study of gravitational waves, and an odd thought popped into my head. According to wave-particle duality (admittedly, usually used in quantum mechanics!), particles can act like waves, and waves can act like particles. My logic was that, therefore, there should be a particle associated with a gravitational wave. There is one thing, though, that might interfere with this: gravitational waves are plane waves, not longitudinal waves - which is how we describe, for example, photons. But my original question still stands: Is there a particle associated with a gravitational wave? If not, why not? If so, is there a separate mathematical structure associated with it (aside from the metric for the wave)?

FYI: Nope, I'm not talking about gravitons. I know those are completely different and unrelated (and, at the moment, hypothetical).

Answer 1

Let's look theoretically to your question. Let's introduce linearized GR and then let's derive the wave equations. It is exactly the second Bianchi equation for the Weyl tensor. We want to associate some particle to the gravity wave (only for linearized gravity limit). For associating we must do at least two things:

1) Show that equation for hypothetical particle coincides with the equation for the Weyl tensor.

2) Show that theory of interaction of corresponding field of this particle with matter respects the equivalence principle.

It can be shown, that theory for massless free particle with helicity 2 are completely equal to the free generalized GR. Also, in the infrared limit the lorentz-invariance and existence of nontrivial scattering processes requires equivalence principle (i.e., the coupling constants of interaction with different kinds of fundamental fields).

So we may conclude that in a case of linearized gravity we may represent the gravitational waves as gravitons. But corresponding theory has many hard problems, of course.

Answer 2

If there was a quantum theory of gravity (which there isn't) then it would include a graviton as the elementary particle associated with gravity, in the same way that the photon is associated with the electromagnetic field (as CuriousMind says).

An electromagnetic wave in vacuum is transverse - both the electric and magnetic fields are vectors that are at right angles to the direction of propagation. In Quantum Field Theory this is somehow connected to the fact that the photon has spin 1.

A gravitational wave is a tensor wave - the disturbance is in the metric, which is a tensor. One can loosely say it is transverse for the following reason: There is a theorem that says that a spherically symmetric body (for example a symmetric collapsing star) does not generate gravitational waves - because all the movements of matter are radial, and this in the same direction as the putative outgoing wave. The tensor nature means the graviton must have spin 2.

In Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) one or more virtual photons are exchanged between two particles that interact electromagnetically. (I suppose this picture strictly only applies in the perturbation theory approach, in which Feynman diagrams are used.)

In Quantum Gravity Theory (if it existed) one or more virtual gravitons would be exchanged between particles interacting gravitationally. The photon and the graviton are both massless. This is related to the fact that both are long range forces, with an inverse square dependence, with no exponential drop-off with distance.

In QED real photons (observable light) are created when charges accelerate. In Quantum Gravity Theory (if it existed) real gravitons are created when mass (or pressure or stress) accelerates.

The particle nature of gravitational radiation would be difficult to observe experimentally, because it is almost impossible to think of processes that would create gravitons of 1 electron-volt of energy or more - the energy that is easy to measure as it corresponds to chemical reactions, the photoelectric effect, and such-like. Hope this helps, @HDE.

Answer 3

Everything in the universe is in a particular process of mechanical interaction whether it is visible or not. Whenever we see it then it turns into light–mechanical motion or light-matter interaction. Light is an electromagnetic (EM) field and its interaction with mechanical systems particle associated with mechanical motions. Particle polarization determines the charged state and its interaction with light involves an exchange of energy and its dynamics towards a nonlinear platform. As a charged matter, electrons are common particles available in bulk, and the tiniest materials are classified as classical, and quantum features respectively. The light and electron relationship in the double slit experiment and its quantum phenomena (particle and wave nature) make them alike. The electron and its interaction with the light, light as energy and electron as matter the light-matter or wave-particle interface is the energy-mass entanglement in space. We can speculate that the relationships between light and gravity, the mass and energy are set in a complex facet. Light velocity, like escape velocity, can only be attained if the reference space contracts to a single point, and the time dilutes. The gravity phenomena in space-time frame in which relative gravity effect is the cautious measurements of the curved path motion of objects and light. Hence, it appears that the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with the motion of objects and the gravity action on it is supposed to be simultaneous. It is associated with different energies in space-time dimensions. Quantum EM from classical phenomena, the charged particle renders into mass and charge-free photon that has both particle and wave nature. Gravity in a relativistic viewpoint is considered as a space-time curved path of mass entanglement.