English

A common misconception about LIGO detectors of gravitational waves

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2014-11-17 v1

Abstract

A common misconception about laser interferometric detectors of gravitational waves purports that, because the wavelength of laser light and the length of an interferometer's arm are both stretched by a gravitational wave, no effect should be visible, invoking an analogy with cosmological redshift in an expanding universe. The issue is clarified with the help of a direct calculation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/0702079,
  title  = {A common misconception about LIGO detectors of gravitational waves},
  author = {Valerio Faraoni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/0702079},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

9 pages, LaTeX, to appear in Gen. Rel. Grav