An Upper Bound from Helioseismology on the Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves
Abstract
The universe is expected to be permeated by a stochastic background of gravitational radiation of astrophysical and cosmological origin. This background is capable of exciting oscillations in solar-like stars. Here we show that solar-like oscillators can be employed as giant hydrodynamical detectors for such a background in the μHz to mHz frequency range, which has remained essentially unexplored until today. We demonstrate this approach by using high-precision radial velocity data for the Sun to constrain the normalized energy density of the stochastic gravitational-wave background around 0.11 mHz. These results open up the possibility for asteroseismic missions like CoRoT and Kepler to probe fundamental physics.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- April 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/784/2/88
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1401.6888
- Bibcode:
- 2014ApJ...784...88S
- Keywords:
-
- asteroseismology;
- gravitational waves;
- stars: oscillations: including pulsations;
- Sun: helioseismology;
- Sun: oscillations;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 6 pages, 2 figures. Updated to match published version