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Chasing gravitational waves

Nature Photonics volume 2, pages 582–585 (2008)Cite this article

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory in the USA is searching for gravitational-wave emissions from cataclysmic astrophysical events. The task has required the construction of the world's largest and most sensitive optical strain sensor.

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Figure 1: The optical layout of the LIGO interferometers showing major components, including the laser, electro–optic modulators (EOM), Faraday isolator (FI), mode-cleaner filter cavity, mode-matching telescope (MMT), the interferometer mirror components, and length- and alignment-sensing photodiodes and quadrant sensors.

LIGO Scientific Collaboration

Figure 2: The effect of the passage of a gravitational wave on a ring of freely falling particles (green spheres) and on the lengths of the arms of an interferometer.
Figure 3: The strain amplitude spectral densities of the LIGO Hanford 4-km interferometer (pale blue curve), the Livingston 4-km interferometer (green curve) and the Hanford 2-km interferometer (red curve) during LIGO's fifth science run.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. David Reitze is in the Department of Physics at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA, and is in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. reitze@phys.ufl.edu,

    David Reitze

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Reitze, D. Chasing gravitational waves. Nature Photon 2, 582–585 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2008.186

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