Summary
We investigate the physical meaning of the observers (defined in a geometrical, coordinate-independent way) associated with the TT gauge and otherad hoc coordinate systems that are often used in the description of gravitational-wave detectors. TT observers undergo very complicated motions when seen by a freely falling observer; for most (but not all) kinds of detectors with sizel much smaller than the wavelength λ of the radiation to be detected, Fermi normal coordinates are the best. For detectors withl/λ≥1, there are tricky possibilities depending on the particular kind of device considered; we point out the difficulty of giving a clear, geometrical description of the family of fundamental observers associated with the detector.
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Faraoni, V. Theoretical problems on gravitational-wave detectors. Nuov Cim B 107, 631–642 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02723171
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02723171