Shimmering gravitons in the gamma-ray sky

Abstract

What is the highest energy at which gravitons can be observed? We address this question by studying graviton-to-photon conversion - the inverse-Gertsenshtein effect - in the magnetic field of the Milky Way. We find that above $\sim 1\text{mbox}PeV$ the effective photon mass grows large enough to quench the conversion rate. For sub-PeV energies, the induced photon flux is comparable to the sensitivity of LHAASO to a diffuse $\gamma$-ray background, but only for graviton abundances of order ${\Omega }_{\text{gw}}{h}_0^2\sim 1$. In the future, owing to a better understanding of $\gamma$-ray backgrounds, larger effective areas and longer observation times, sub-PeV shimmering gravitons with a realistic abundance of ${\Omega }_{\text{gw}}{h}_0^2\sim 0.01$ could be detected. We show how such a large abundance is achieved in a cosmologically-motivated scenario of post-recombination superheavy dark matter decay. Therefore, the sub-PeV range might be the ultimate energy frontier at which gravitons can be observed.

Comments: 16 pages, 2 figures, matches journal version