Quantum nature of gravitational waves from binary black holes

Abstract: Quantum mechanics is the fundamental framework of nature, and gravitational waves from binary black holes should likewise be analyzed quantum mechanically. It is commonly assumed that their classical description corresponds to a coherent state, so any deviation would signal genuinely quantum nature of gravity. We show that the coherent-state description reproduces classical gravitational waves at leading order, while next-order effects generate squeezed states of gravitons. For GW150914, we estimate the squeezing parameter to be $\sim 10<sup>{-3}$. Detection of such squeezing with LIGO, Virgo, or KAGRA would provide direct evidence for the quantization of gravity.