Quantum State Characterization of Gravitational Waves via Graviton Counting Statistics
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2602.09125 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 9 Feb 2026] Title:Quantum State Characterization of Gravitational Waves via Graviton Counting Statistics Authors:Kristian Toccacelo, Thomas Beitel, Ulrik Lund Andersen, Igor Pikovski View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum State Characterization of Gravitational Waves via Graviton Counting Statistics, by Kristian Toccacelo and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Although gravitational waves are now routinely observed, the detection of individual gravitons has long been regarded as impossible. Recent work, however, has demonstrated that single-graviton detection can be achieved and may be feasible in the near future. Here we show that beyond mere particle detection, these detectors provide access to the quantum state and particle statistics of gravitational waves. We show that graviton detection probabilities enable the discrimination between squeezed, coherent, and thermal radiation. We further demonstrate that the full quantum statistics contained in the second-order correlation function of the passing wave can be directly measured at the detector, independent of the weak gravitational interaction strength. Building on recent quantum-optical techniques, this capability opens the way to full quantum state tomography of Gaussian states. Our results demonstrate that single-graviton detection is not only of foundational significance but also of practical value, allowing for the characterization of quantum statistics and the states of the gravitational radiation field, which remain currently unknown. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) Cite as: arXiv:2602.09125 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2602.09125v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.09125 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Kristian Toccacelo [view email] [v1] Mon, 9 Feb 2026 19:16:13 UTC (609 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Quantum State Characterization of Gravitational Waves via Graviton Counting Statistics, by Kristian Toccacelo and 3 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-02 Change to browse by: gr-qc References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)