Space-time interferometry

It is believed that it is now possible to build instruments of sufficient sensitivity to detect gravitational waves convincingly. Plans exist to construct a world-wide network of large baseline detector systems incorporating laser interferometry to carry out observations of gravitational radiation from collapsed astronomical objects such as supernovae, compact binary coalescences and black hole interactions. A detector planned for siting in Britain would comprise a number of large optical interferometers each with two arms at right angles to each other of length up to 2.6 km. The interferometers would observe small fluctuations in the curvature of space time which involve measuring changes in the length of the arms of less than a thousandth of a nuclear diameter. The Tentsmuir Forest in Fife, Scotland, has been identified as a suitable level detector site. (U.K.)