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Concept study of a storage ring-based gravitational wave observatory: Terrestrial gravity noise from Rayleigh waves

Thorben Schmirander1,2,*, Velizar Miltchev1, Marcus Brüggen2, Florian Grüner1, Wolfgang Hillert1, and Jochen Liske2

  • *Contact author: Thorben.Schmirander@uni-hamburg.de
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 062003 – Published 8 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/s5zk-nw4f

Abstract

We extend the concept study of a storage ring-based millihertz gravitational wave (GW) detector of our previous work by estimating the terrestrial gravity noise (TGN) for a singly charged di-uranium ion circulating in a model storage ring with the circumference of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In our estimate, we consider solely seismic activity originating from Rayleigh waves, which are one of the most dominant source of TGN. Our first result is an analytical calculation of the time delay caused by the gravitational pull of a mass fluctuation in the vicinity of such a storage ring that a particle builds up compared to the unperturbed circulation time. Furthermore we simulate a Rayleigh wave field in a homogeneous half space scaled with the Peterson low noise model and compute the gravitational forces acting on the particle stored in the model ring. We relate our analytical considerations to the numerical results for the time delay by solving the geodesic equations for a storage ring and a conservative background potential and analytically derive the function of the time delay from the result. By performing a Fourier transform we compute the characteristic noise strain numerically and analytically. Based on the results we conclude that the terrestrial gravity noise in a storage ring-based gravitational wave detector is weak compared to the GW signature. However, we expect that seismic perturbations of the storage ring structure leading to a shaking of the experimental apparatus can cause a very large noise contribution. This noise, however, is mitigable in principle—in contrast to the TGN.

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Concept study of a storage ring-based gravitational wave observatory: Gravitational wave strain and synchrotron radiation noise

Thorben Schmirander, Velizar Miltchev, Suvrat Rao, Marcus Brüggen, Florian Grüner, Wolfgang Hillert, and Jochen Liske
Phys. Rev. D 110, 082002 (2024)

Article Text

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 062003– Published 8 September, 2026
  • Received 23 October 2025
  • Accepted 29 July 2026
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