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Terrestrial Laser Interferometers

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Handbook of Gravitational Wave Astronomy

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Abstract

Terrestrial laser interferometers for gravitational-wave detection made the landmark first detection of gravitational waves in 2015. We provide an overview of the history of how these laser interferometers prevailed as the most promising technology in the search for gravitational waves. We describe their working principles and their limitations and provide examples of some of the most important technologies that enabled their construction. We introduce each of the four large-scale laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors in operation around the world today and provide a brief outlook for the future of ground-based detectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Katherine L Dooley & Hartmut Grote

  2. Nikhef and Maastricht University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jo van den Brand

Authors
  1. Katherine L Dooley
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  2. Hartmut Grote
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  3. Jo van den Brand
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine L Dooley .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Cosimo Bambi

  2. Université de Paris and European Gravitational Observatory, Paris, France

    Stavros Katsanevas

  3. Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics Eberhard Karls, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Konstantinos D. Kokkotas

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Dooley, K.L., Grote, H., van den Brand, J. (2022). Terrestrial Laser Interferometers. In: Bambi, C., Katsanevas, S., Kokkotas, K.D. (eds) Handbook of Gravitational Wave Astronomy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4306-4_2

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