A Low-Frequency Gravity Wave Antenna (Abstract)

Volume 21 number 2 (1992)

Casper Hossfield

Ramsey, NJ

Abstract

(Abstract only) A binary neutron star with a period of several seconds will produce a gravity wave at a discrete frequency. This paper describes a proposed detector consisting of two 70-kg. pendula connected by an optical fiber under tension. An interferometer is used to detect oscillations of the length of the fiber. It is necessary to protect the antenna from vibrations of cultural and natural origin. This device has the disadvantage that it is highly selective and it must be tuned to the period of the source, but this can be achieved with a frequency scanner. Although the antenna is designed to be very sensitive to low frequencies, it nevertheless seems extremely unlikely that it will detect a gravity wave. The search for these elusive ripples in the curvature of spacetime has gone on for over twenty years without success, but the searching so far has been at high frequencies. There is also the possibility of finding something that has not been predicted. If history teaches us anything, it is that astronomy has always been full of surprises.