The gravitational schwinger effect and attenuation of gravitational waves

This paper will discuss the possible production of photons from gravitational waves. This process is shown to be possible by examining Feynman diagrams, the Schwinger Effect, and Hawking Radiation. The end goal of this project is to find the decay length of a gravitational wave and assert that this decay is due to photons being created at the expense of the gravitational wave. To do this, we first find the state function using the Klein Gordon equation, then find the current due to this state function. We then take the current to be directly proportional to the production rate per volume. This is then used to find the decay length that this kind of production would produce, gives a prediction of how this effect will change the distance an event creating a gravitational wave will be located, and shows that this effect is small but can be significant near the source of a gravitational wave.