Signatures of gravitational wave memory in the radiative process of entangled quantum probes

Abstract

In this article, we examine entangled quantum probes in geodesic trajectories in a flat background with a gravitational wave (GW) burst. In particular, these quantum probes are prepared initially either in the symmetric or antisymmetric Bell’s states, and we study the radiative process as the GW burst passes. We split a generic GW burst into two profiles with and without memory. GW burst with (without) memory profiles have different (similar) asymptotic strains between early and late times. We observe that for eternal switching, there is a finite change in the collective atomic transition rate due to the memory part of the GW burst, while the contribution from the without memory counterpart vanishes. We also consider finite Gaussian switching and observe characteristic differences in the radiative process between the GW backgrounds with and without memory. Notably, if the Gaussian switching is peaked much later compared to the passing of GW, only the memory part contributes to the radiative process. Thus, although examined in a simplified setup, our findings suggest the potential to distinguish bursts with and without GW memory based on the radiative process of entangled detectors