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  • Open Access

Gravitational Wave Imprints on Spontaneous Emission

Jerzy Paczos1,*, Navdeep Arya1,†, Sofia Qvarfort1,2,‡, Daniel Braun3,§, and Magdalena Zych1,∥

  • *Contact author: jerzy.paczos@fysik.su.se
  • †Contact author: navdeep.arya@fysik.su.se
  • ‡Contact author: sofia.qvarfort@fysik.su.se
  • §Contact author: daniel.braun@uni-tuebingen.de
  • ∥Contact author: magdalena.zych@fysik.su.se
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 113201 – Published 19 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1gtr-5c2f

Abstract

Despite growing interest, there is a scarcity of known predictions in the regime where both quantum and general relativistic effects become observable. Here, we investigate a combined atom-field system in a curved spacetime, with a specific focus on gravitational-wave backgrounds. We demonstrate that a plane gravitational wave alters spontaneous emission from a single atom, manifesting itself as a direction-dependent change in the emission spectrum. Although the total decay rate remains unchanged, implying that no information about the gravitational wave is stored in the atomic internal state alone, the wave leaves imprints on the evolution of the composite atom-field system. To quantify how well this effect can be measured, we analyze both the classical Fisher information associated with photon number measurements and the quantum Fisher information. Our analysis indicates that the effect could be measured in state-of-the-art cold-atom experiments and points to spontaneous emission as a potential probe of low-frequency gravitational waves.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 113201– Published 19 March, 2026
  • Received 10 July 2025
  • Revised 18 December 2025
  • Accepted 2 February 2026
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