Space-borne gravitational wave detectors as time-delayed differential dynamometers

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel interpretation of space-borne gravitational wave detectors as time-delayed differential dynamometers, enabling new insights into gravitational effects and curvature measurement along the beam.

Contribution

It introduces a new perspective on gravitational wave detectors, modeling the link as a differential, time-delayed dynamometer that measures curvature and gravitational effects.

Findings

The link acts as a differential, time-delayed dynamometer.

The differential force measurement is equivalent to an effective gravitational force.

This approach enhances data analysis for gravitational wave detection.

Abstract

The basic constituent of many space-borne gravitational missions, in particular for interferometric gravitational waves detectors, is the so-called link made out of a satellite sending an electromagnetic beam to a second satellite. We illustrate how, by measuring the time derivative of the frequency of the received beam, the link behaves as a differential, time-delayed dynamometer in which the effect of gravity is exactly equivalent to an effective differential force applied to the two satellites. We also show that this differential force gives an integrated measurement of curvature along the beam. Finally, we discuss how this approach can be implemented to benefit the data analysis of gravitational wave detectors.