Here we examine, as a proof-of-concept, the potential of modulating the gravitational metric via electromagnetic wave resonance by analyzing potential natural occurrences: graviton-to-photon conversion by magnetars may explain Fast Radio Bursts and analysis of photons generated by inverse Gertsenshtein effect in the magnetosphere of Jovian planets may enable study of high frequency gravity waves from the early Universe. Human civilization has a relatively proficient grasp of controlling electromagnetic phenomena; so, being able to leverage electromagnetic resonance to couple with the spacetime metric for geometrodynamic engineering may enable us to gain a similar level of proficiency in controlling the gravitational force.
Fast Radio Bursts are a strange class of radio astronomy phenomena observed from unknown deep space sources (most are extragalactic in origin). Such fast radio bursts (FRBs) are transient radio pulses of length ranging from a fraction of a millisecond to 3 seconds [1], caused by some high-energy astrophysical process that is not yet understood. Due to the cosmological distances involved and the strength of such signals when received here on Earth, astronomers estimate the average FRB releases as much energy in a millisecond as the Sun puts out in three days [2]. The possible progenitors of Fast Radio Bursts are not easily explained and several theories have been expounded. There is good reason to believe, and evidence suggests, that they may be sourced from magnetars [3]—a type of neutron star with a magnetic field above the Schwinger limit, high enough to cause vacuum polarization—however, it has also been noted that FRBs have technosignatures that may be indicative of artificial origins like signals from an extraterrestrial intelligence [4].
Figure 1. A magnetar is a type of neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field (~109 to 1011 T, ~1013 to 1015 G). The magnetic-field decay powers the emission of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, particularly X-rays and gamma rays. It has been suggested that magnetars are the source of fast radio bursts (FRB), in particular as a result of findings in 2020 by scientists using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. [3]
Many theories put forward to explain fast radio bursts involve astrophysical events like neutron-to-neutron star mergers, but such singular events cannot explain a class of FRBs that reoccur periodically (some with the putative technosignature of a pattern), what are called repeating FRBs. So, magnetar origin theories are alluring because they offer an explanatory framework for repeating FRBs, like for example synchroton maser emission from relativistic magnetized shocks [5].
In 2022 the team of researchers Kushwaha, Malik & Shankaranarayanan described a theoretical model in which Fast Radio Bursts originate from gravity-to-electromagnetic wave conversion around extremely massive compact objects with extremely strong magnetic field strengths, like magnetars. When gravitational waves pass through the magnetosphere of such compact objects the energy is converted into electromagnetic waves via a process known as the Gertsenshtein-Zel’dovich effect (GZ effect), an effect in which electromagnetic radiation passing through a transverse magnetic field can be transmuted into gravitational waves (and vice-versa) via wave resonance [6]. as shown by Gertsenshtein in 1961 an external magnetic field can catalyze the resonant mixing between graviton and photon states in a manner analogous to neutrino-flavor oscillations [7].
It had long been predicted that photon-to-graviton conversion would be possible around neutron star types, like magnetars. It had been pointed out by Russian physicist Yakov Zel’dovich [8] that the Gertsenshtein mechanism requires coherence between the gravitational and electromagnetic waves and since the strong magnetic field around such neutron stars—generating electron and positron flux from the vacuum—there will be no resonance driving formation of coherence and hence any transmutation may be quenched. This is because the electromagnetic wave propagation through the vacuum electron-positron plasma is lowered relative to that of gravitational waves and any potential wave resonance between the two will not be fully possible.
However, despite the potential quenching from vacuum polarization (which has been observed around neutron stars) with the recent reanalysis of the characteristics of gravitational waves traversing a pulsar magnetosphere by Kushwaha, Malik & Shankaranarayanan it has been found that the GZ effect can explain many of the observed properties of repeating and non-repeating FRB [9]. If this model is correct, such a progenitor pulsar would continuously emit both EM dipole and gravitational quadrupole radiation for a long period of time (figure 2), and detection of such radiation might validate the GZ process for FRB production and most importantly, would be evidence from a naturally occurring process that serves as proof-of-concept for engineering of high-frequency gravitational wave communications and other gravity control technologies.
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of a pulsar where magnetic field axis makes an angle of χ with the rotation axes. The angle between the rotation axis and the detector’s line of sight is i. Image and image description from [9].
Although the GZ effect is generally unknown to physicists and most proposals for geometrodynamic engineering have focused on utilizing the Casimir effect to generate a warp-drive spacetime configuration—like the Alcubierre metric—the potential to step into the era of gravity control with devices that generate gravitational waves for laboratory studies and technological applications have not gone completely unnoticed. An unclassified Defense Intelligence Reference Document of a detailed report on the potential of high-frequency gravitational waves for communications discusses how high frequency waves could, in principle, carry significant information content with effectively no absorption (unlike electromagnetic signals) and that such gravitational signals can pass point-to-point or point-to-multipoint through material objects without attenuation of the signal.
The inventor Salvatore Cezar Pais has a patent for a high-frequency gravitational wave generator (Figure 3). Pais, known for other patents including a design for a warp-drive generator, describes a novel acoustic vibrational resonant method to generate dual polarized electromagnetic wave propagations that cause gravitational field fluctuations as they pass through each other. By precise modulation of such a process, high-specificity gravitational wave signals can theoretically be generated.
Figure 3. Pais’ detailed schematic of a high frequency gravitational wave generator with two gas-filled acoustic vibration resonant cavities with counter-rotating spin. The outer shell surface is electrically charged and vibrated by microwave emitters to generate the initial electromagnetic field and a secondary EM field is generated via acoustic energy within the resonant cavities. When the two EM fields propagate through each other, Pais claims that energy conversion will transmute some waves into propagating fluctuations of the gravitational field.
Unified Science In Perspective
Although the capability to artificially generate gravitational waves is still only theoretical, and some might find technological realization of the GZ effect unfeasible, studying the way in which electromagnetic waves can be transmuted into gravitational waves, or photon-to-graviton conversion, will offer advanced insights into how the gravitational metric can potentially be controlled via electromagnetic modalities for geometrodynamic engineering—potentially enabling warp-drives. As Nassim Haramein and the International Space Federation have long-maintained, chemical propulsion is not going to get us to other planets and stellar systems. Physicist Eric Weinstein recently stated “anybody who is not focused on new physics is not taking interplanetary travel seriously” [September 4th, 2023 Eric Weinstein interview with Chris Williamson] , and indeed we concur.
Additionally, there is the astrophysics aspect of leveraging the natural occurrence of the GZ effect for gravitational wave astronomy to better understand the cosmos. The research team Liu, Ren, and Zhang recently demonstrated the feasibility of analyzing the photons produced by inverse Gertsenshtein conversion in the magnetosphere of Jovian planets like Jupiter to study the gravitational wave background and high-frequency gravitational waves of the early universe [10]. Perhaps through such astronomical studies, we can better come to understand how energy is naturally interconverted between electromagnetic and gravitational wave phenomena, which at the fundamental level are both just wave resonance activity of the zero-point energy field.
References
[1] “Astronomers detect a radio “heartbeat” billions of light-years from Earth”. 13 July 2022.
[2] Petroff, E.; Hessels, J. W. T.; Lorimer, D. R. (2019-05-24). “Fast radio bursts”. The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review. 27 (1): 4. arXiv:1904.07947
[3] Starr, Michelle (1 June 2020). “Astronomers Just Narrowed Down The Source of Those Powerful Radio Signals From Space”. ScienceAlert.com. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
[4] Loeb, Avi (24 June 2020). “An Audacious Explanation for Fast Radio Bursts – It’s a long shot, but could at least some of these energy blasts from across the universe come from extraterrestrial civilizations?”. Scientific American. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
[5] Lyubarsky Y., 2014. A model for fast extragalactic radio bursts. MNRAS, 442, L9 10.1093/mnrasl/slu046
[6] Gertsenshtein, M. E, (1962), “Wave resonance of light and gravitational waves,” Soviet Physics JETP, Volume 14, Number 1, pp. 84-85.
[7] A. Palessandro and T. Rothman, “A Simple Derivation of the Gertsenshtein Effect,” Physics of the Dark Universe, vol. 40, p. 101187, May 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.dark.2023.101187.
[8] Ya. B. Zel’dovich, “Electromagnetic and gravitational waves in a stationary magnetic field,” Zh. Eksp. Theor. Fiz. 68 1311-1315 (1973).
[9] S. Kalita and A. Weltman, “Continuous gravitational wave detection to understand the generation mechanism of fast radio bursts,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 520, no. 3, pp. 3742–3748, Feb. 2023, doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad392.
[10] T. Liu, J. Ren, and C. Zhang, “Detecting High-Frequency Gravitational Waves in Planetary Magnetosphere.” arXiv, Jun. 28, 2023. Accessed: Sep. 12, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01832
