Detecting gravitational waves with light

2025/05/24 by Pössel, Markus
#Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Physics Education (physics.ed-ph)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.18639

Abstract

The strong evidence for low-frequency gravitational waves from pulsar timing arrays (PTAs), published in 2023, has widened the scope for teaching about gravitational wave astronomy. This article provides a simple, unified overview of the detection of gravitational waves using light waves that encompasses the recent PTA detections, the by-now classic interferometric detections using LIGO and similar detectors, and the yet-to-be-accomplished detections using long-arm detectors like the spaceborne LISA. The presentation is at a level accessible for undergraduate students. The influence of gravitational waves on light is derived in a way that makes use only of basic gravitational wave properties and Einstein's equivalence principle.

Citations

• Searching for the Nano-Hertz Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array Data Release I
• Search for an Isotropic Gravitational-wave Background with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
• The second data release from the European Pulsar Timing Array
• Gravitational-wave bursts with memory: The Christodoulou effect

Related

• Gravitational Waves Through Time: Scientific Significance, Detection Techniques, and Recent Breakthroughs
• Gravitational-wave Astronomy: Opening a New Window on the Universe for Students, Educators and the Public
• Role of Modern Optical Techniques in Gravitational Wave Detection
• When spacetime vibrates: An introduction to gravitational waves
• Gravitational Waves