On the Potential of Large Ring Lasers

TL;DR

This paper discusses a large ring laser with an area of 833 m^2, updates its performance data, and highlights its potential for geophysical applications and future improvements despite being less suitable than matter interferometers for gravitational wave detection.

Contribution

It introduces a new large-area ring laser and provides updated performance statistics, emphasizing its potential for geophysical research and future enhancements.

Findings

Large ring laser with 833 m^2 area demonstrated.

Performance statistics updated for several such lasers.

Potential for geophysical applications noted despite limitations for gravitational wave detection.

Abstract

We describe a new ring laser with area A = 833 m^2 and update performance statistics for several such machines. Anandan & Chaio 1982 judged ring lasers inferior to matter interferometers as possible detectors of gravitational waves. However, we note that geophysically interesting results have been obtained from large ring lasers and that there is still a lot of room for improvements.