Coherent State Description of Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Holes
Abstract
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental framework of nature, and gravitational waves from binary black holes during the inspiral phase should likewise be analyzed quantum mechanically. It is commonly assumed that their classical description corresponds to a coherent state, so any deviation would signal genuinely quantum nature of gravity. We show that the coherent-state description reproduces classical gravitational waves at leading order, while next-order effects generate squeezed states of gravitons. For GW150914, we estimate the squeezing parameter to be ∼10^{-4}. We find that gravitational waves from binary black holes are well described by a coherent state.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Volume
- 136
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 061404–061404
- Publication date
- 9 January 2026
- Language
- EN