Raymond Angelil - April 11, 2014

Coupling gravitational waves and light: resonance in the long arm regime!?

I will show some new derivations of the effect of a gravitational wave
on a light ray, in both geometrical and wave optics.  Geometrical
optics is more suited to expressing light travel times, and wave
optics to phases; but it is also possible to describe travel times in
wave optics and phases in geometrical optics.  The net effect can be
expressed concisely and intuitively as a phase modulation, and an
analogous effect applies to massive particles.  Over distances not
short comparable to the gravitational wavelength, we find resonant
length-angle combinations where multiple reflection can amplify the
phase shift beyond the limit for short-arm interferometers.