Response of an Interferometer Mounted on an Elastic Square Plate to Gravitational Waves

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a laser interferometer mounted on an elastic plate responds to gravitational waves, considering the elastic oscillations of the mounting material, which could affect detection sensitivity.

Contribution

It provides a novel analysis of gravitational wave detection response when the interferometer is mounted on an elastic structure, extending traditional models.

Findings

Elastic oscillations influence interferometer response

Response computed for a 2D elastic material

Implications for gravitational wave detector design

Abstract

Laser-interferometric gravitational wave detectors are commonly modeled as being at rest in transverse-traceless coordinates (and thus geodesic). In this paper, we analyze what happens if the interferometer is mounted on a material that can undergo elastic oscillations caused by the gravitational wave. We thus compute the response of a two-dimensional elastic material to linearized gravitational radiation and compute the resulting response of a laser interferometer, mounted on such a plate.