Study of acceleration measurement in gravitational wave detection

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of acceleration measurement in gravitational wave detection, deriving its quantum limit and demonstrating its advantages over position and speed measurements, especially in noise suppression.

Contribution

It presents a new acceleration measurement approach, derives its quantum limit, and provides a configuration example showing improved noise suppression in gravitational wave detectors.

Findings

Acceleration measurement has a distinct quantum limit.

Acceleration-meter shows stronger radiation pressure noise suppression.

Shot noise dominates at low frequencies with a 1/Ω^2 dependence.

Abstract

Position-meter and speed-meter interferometers have been analysed for detecting gravitational waves. We introduce the concept of acceleration measurement in comparison with position and speed measurement. In this paper, we describe a general acceleration measurement and derive its standard quantum limit. We provide an example of an acceleration-meter interferometer configuration. We show that shot noise dominates at low frequency following a frequency dependence of $1/\Omega^2$, while radiation pressure noise is constant. The acceleration-meter has even a stronger radiation pressure noise suppression than speed-meter.