We present a model for the coupling of nonrelativistic quantum systems with a linearized gravitational field from a Lagrangian formulation. The coupling strongly resembles the light-matter interaction models that are known to be well approximated by the Unruh-DeWitt detector model for interactions with quantum fields. We then apply our model to linearized quantum gravity, which allows us to propose a detector based setup that can in principle probe the quantum nature of the gravitational field.

• Received 3 April 2020
• Accepted 29 May 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.125018