Extraction of energy from gravitational waves by laser interferometer detectors

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the energy interaction between gravitational waves and laser interferometer gravitational wave detectors. We show that the widely held view that the laser interferometer gravitational wave detector absorbs no energy from gravitational waves is only valid under the approximation of a frequency-independent optomechanical coupling strength and a pump laser without detuning with respect to the resonance of the interferometer. For a strongly detuned interferometer, the optical-damping dynamics dissipates gravitational wave energy through the interaction between the test masses and the optical field. For a non-detuned interferometer, the frequency-dependence of the optomechanical coupling strength causes a tiny energy dissipation, which is proved to be equivalent to the Doppler friction raised by Braginsky et al.

Additional Information

© 2015 Institute of Physics. Received 25 February 2014, revised 23 September 2014. Accepted for publication 28 October 2014. Published 3 December 2014. We would like to thank our colleagues for fruitful discussions, especially Haixing Miao, Peter Saulson, Harald Lück, Farid Ya Khalili, Yanbei Chen, Huan Yang, Maxim Goryachev, Sergey P Vyachatnin and Stefan L Danilishin. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council and the Department of Education, Science and Training.

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