If light waves are stretched by gravitational waves, how can we use light as a ruler to detect gravitational waves?

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 65, Issue 6, 1997, Pages 501-505

  Saulson, Peter R ^a  

^a SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0031508213     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.18578     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. Excellent reviews can be found in the following: K. S. Thorne, "Gravitational radiation," in 300 Years of Gravitation, edited by S. W. Hawking and W. Israel (Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1987), pp. 330-458, and The Detection of Gravitational Waves, edited by D. G. Blair (Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1991).
2. Excellent reviews can be found in the following: K. S. Thorne, "Gravitational radiation," in 300 Years of Gravitation, edited by S. W. Hawking and W. Israel (Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1987), pp. 330-458, and The Detection of Gravitational Waves, edited by D. G. Blair (Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1991).
3. A. Abramovici et al., "LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitationalwave Observatory," Science 256, 325-333 (1992); C. Bradaschia et al., "The VIRGO Project: A wide band antenna for gravitational wave detection," Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 289, 518-525 (1990); A. Abramovici et al., "Gravitational wave astrophysics," in Proceedings of the 1994 Snowmass Summer Study: Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics and Cosmology in the Next Millenium, edited by E. W. Kolb and R. D. Peccei (World Scientific, Singapore, 1995), pp. 389-425.
4. A. Abramovici et al., "LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitationalwave Observatory," Science 256, 325-333 (1992); C. Bradaschia et al., "The VIRGO Project: A wide band antenna for gravitational wave detection," Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 289, 518-525 (1990); A. Abramovici et al., "Gravitational wave astrophysics," in Proceedings of the 1994 Snowmass Summer Study: Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics and Cosmology in the Next Millenium, edited by E. W. Kolb and R. D. Peccei (World Scientific, Singapore, 1995), pp. 389-425.
5. A. Abramovici et al., "LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitationalwave Observatory," Science 256, 325-333 (1992); C. Bradaschia et al., "The VIRGO Project: A wide band antenna for gravitational wave detection," Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 289, 518-525 (1990); A. Abramovici et al., "Gravitational wave astrophysics," in Proceedings of the 1994 Snowmass Summer Study: Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics and Cosmology in the Next Millenium, edited by E. W. Kolb and R. D. Peccei (World Scientific, Singapore, 1995), pp. 389-425.
6. The basic idea, in the form of a thought experiment, goes back at least as far as F. A. E. Pirani, "On the physical significance of the Riemann tensor," Acta Phys. Pol. 15, 389-405 (1956). A first estimate of experimental sensitivity can be found in M. E. Gertsenshtein and V. I. Pustovoit, "On the detection of low frequency gravitational waves," J. Exp. Theoret. Phys. (U.S.S.R.) 43, 605-607 (1962), in English translation in Sov. Phys. JETP 16, 433-435 (1963). Another treatment of the theory and much more detailed discussion of experimental issues was carried out by R. Weiss, "Electromagnetically coupled broadband gravitational antenna," Q. Prog. Rep., MIT Res. Lab. Electron. 105, 54-75 (1972). The most detailed discussion to date of the interferometer response as a function of signal frequency and angle of incidence was carried out by R. Weiss, P. S. Linsay, P. R. Saulson, and S. E. Whitcomb, in A Study of a Long Baseline Gravitational Wave Antenna System (MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1983). For a summary of that calculation, see P. R. Saulson, Fundamentals of Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors (World Scientific, Singapore, 1994), pp. 18-25.
7. The basic idea, in the form of a thought experiment, goes back at least as far as F. A. E. Pirani, "On the physical significance of the Riemann tensor," Acta Phys. Pol. 15, 389-405 (1956). A first estimate of experimental sensitivity can be found in M. E. Gertsenshtein and V. I. Pustovoit, "On the detection of low frequency gravitational waves," J. Exp. Theoret. Phys. (U.S.S.R.) 43, 605-607 (1962), in English translation in Sov. Phys. JETP 16, 433-435 (1963). Another treatment of the theory and much more detailed discussion of experimental issues was carried out by R. Weiss, "Electromagnetically coupled broadband gravitational antenna," Q. Prog. Rep., MIT Res. Lab. Electron. 105, 54-75 (1972). The most detailed discussion to date of the interferometer response as a function of signal frequency and angle of incidence was carried out by R. Weiss, P. S. Linsay, P. R. Saulson, and S. E. Whitcomb, in A Study of a Long Baseline Gravitational Wave Antenna System (MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1983). For a summary of that calculation, see P. R. Saulson, Fundamentals of Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors (World Scientific, Singapore, 1994), pp. 18-25.
8. The basic idea, in the form of a thought experiment, goes back at least as far as F. A. E. Pirani, "On the physical significance of the Riemann tensor," Acta Phys. Pol. 15, 389-405 (1956). A first estimate of experimental sensitivity can be found in M. E. Gertsenshtein and V. I. Pustovoit, "On the detection of low frequency gravitational waves," J. Exp. Theoret. Phys. (U.S.S.R.) 43, 605-607 (1962), in English translation in Sov. Phys. JETP 16, 433-435 (1963). Another treatment of the theory and much more detailed discussion of experimental issues was carried out by R. Weiss, "Electromagnetically coupled broadband gravitational antenna," Q. Prog. Rep., MIT Res. Lab. Electron. 105, 54-75 (1972). The most detailed discussion to date of the interferometer response as a function of signal frequency and angle of incidence was carried out by R. Weiss, P. S. Linsay, P. R. Saulson, and S. E. Whitcomb, in A Study of a Long Baseline Gravitational Wave Antenna System (MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1983). For a summary of that calculation, see P. R. Saulson, Fundamentals of Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors (World Scientific, Singapore, 1994), pp. 18-25.
9. The basic idea, in the form of a thought experiment, goes back at least as far as F. A. E. Pirani, "On the physical significance of the Riemann tensor," Acta Phys. Pol. 15, 389-405 (1956). A first estimate of experimental sensitivity can be found in M. E. Gertsenshtein and V. I. Pustovoit, "On the detection of low frequency gravitational waves," J. Exp. Theoret. Phys. (U.S.S.R.) 43, 605-607 (1962), in English translation in Sov. Phys. JETP 16, 433-435 (1963). Another treatment of the theory and much more detailed discussion of experimental issues was carried out by R. Weiss, "Electromagnetically coupled broadband gravitational antenna," Q. Prog. Rep., MIT Res. Lab. Electron. 105, 54-75 (1972). The most detailed discussion to date of the interferometer response as a function of signal frequency and angle of incidence was carried out by R. Weiss, P. S. Linsay, P. R. Saulson, and S. E. Whitcomb, in A Study of a Long Baseline Gravitational Wave Antenna System (MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1983). For a summary of that calculation, see P. R. Saulson, Fundamentals of Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors (World Scientific, Singapore, 1994), pp. 18-25.
10. The basic idea, in the form of a thought experiment, goes back at least as far as F. A. E. Pirani, "On the physical significance of the Riemann tensor," Acta Phys. Pol. 15, 389-405 (1956). A first estimate of experimental sensitivity can be found in M. E. Gertsenshtein and V. I. Pustovoit, "On the detection of low frequency gravitational waves," J. Exp. Theoret. Phys. (U.S.S.R.) 43, 605-607 (1962), in English translation in Sov. Phys. JETP 16, 433-435 (1963). Another treatment of the theory and much more detailed discussion of experimental issues was carried out by R. Weiss, "Electromagnetically coupled broadband gravitational antenna," Q. Prog. Rep., MIT Res. Lab. Electron. 105, 54-75 (1972). The most detailed discussion to date of the interferometer response as a function of signal frequency and angle of incidence was carried out by R. Weiss, P. S. Linsay, P. R. Saulson, and S. E. Whitcomb, in A Study of a Long Baseline Gravitational Wave Antenna System (MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1983). For a summary of that calculation, see P. R. Saulson, Fundamentals of Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors (World Scientific, Singapore, 1994), pp. 18-25.
11. The basic idea, in the form of a thought experiment, goes back at least as far as F. A. E. Pirani, "On the physical significance of the Riemann tensor," Acta Phys. Pol. 15, 389-405 (1956). A first estimate of experimental sensitivity can be found in M. E. Gertsenshtein and V. I. Pustovoit, "On the detection of low frequency gravitational waves," J. Exp. Theoret. Phys. (U.S.S.R.) 43, 605-607 (1962), in English translation in Sov. Phys. JETP 16, 433-435 (1963). Another treatment of the theory and much more detailed discussion of experimental issues was carried out by R. Weiss, "Electromagnetically coupled broadband gravitational antenna," Q. Prog. Rep., MIT Res. Lab. Electron. 105, 54-75 (1972). The most detailed discussion to date of the interferometer response as a function of signal frequency and angle of incidence was carried out by R. Weiss, P. S. Linsay, P. R. Saulson, and S. E. Whitcomb, in A Study of a Long Baseline Gravitational Wave Antenna System (MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1983). For a summary of that calculation, see P. R. Saulson, Fundamentals of Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors (World Scientific, Singapore, 1994), pp. 18-25.
12. See, for example, D. G. Blair, in Ref. 1; or P. R. Saulson, in Ref. 3.
13. One clear version of this calculation can be found in S. Weinberg, Gravitation and Cosmology (Wiley, New York, 1972), pp. 415-418.
14. These are especially well described in P. J. E. Peebles, Principles of Physical Cosmology (Princeton U.P., Princeton, NJ, 1993), pp. 93-98.
15. F. H. Shu, The Physical Universe (University Science Books, Mill Valley, CA, 1982), p. 374.
16. E. R. Harrison, Cosmology, the Science of the Universe (Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1981); J. V. Narlikar, "Spectral shifts in general relativity," Am. J. Phys. 62, 903-907 (1994).
17. E. R. Harrison, Cosmology, the Science of the Universe (Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, 1981); J. V. Narlikar, "Spectral shifts in general relativity," Am. J. Phys. 62, 903-907 (1994).
18. E. R. Harrison, in Ref. 8, pp. 245, 246.