Stan E. Whitcomb

Demonstration of a power-recycled Michelson interferometer with Fabry–Perot arms by frontal modulation

Large-scale gravitational-wave detectors currently under construction such as the LIGO detectors use multiplemirror resonant optical systems containing several surfaces at which the relative phase of interfering light beams must be controlled. We describe a tabletop experiment that demonstrates a scheme for extracting signals in such an interferometer corresponding to deviations from perfect interference.

The transient gravitational-wave sky

Interferometric detectors will very soon give us an unprecedented view of the gravitational-wave sky, and in particular of the explosive and transient Universe. Now is the time to challenge our theoretical understanding of short-duration gravitational-wave signatures from cataclysmic events, their connection to more traditional electromagnetic and particle astrophysics, and the data analysis techniques that will make the observations a reality. This paper summarizes the state of the art, future science opportunities, and current challenges in understanding gravitational-wave transients.