Nonlinearities in Black Hole Ringdowns and the Quantization of Gravity

Understand

Einstein's theory of gravity admits a low energy effective quantum field description from which predictions beyond classical general relativity can be drawn.

• As gravitational wave detectors improve, one may ask whether non-classical features of such theory can be experimentally verified.
• Here we argue that nonlinear effects in black hole ringdowns can be sensitive to the graviton number statistics and other quantum properties of gravitational wave states.
• The prediction of ringdown signals, potentially measurable in the near future, might require the inclusion of quantum effects.