TUNABLE FREE-MASS GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE DETECTOR

We propose a new type of detector for gravitational radiation. It consists essentially of two masses whose relative motion produces the driving emf of a resonant L-C circuit. The relative momentum of the masses induced by a gravitational wave is determined by the current in the circuit. A unique feature of this system is its ability to be tuned over a wide frequency range. If a quality factor Q∼108 can be achieved in the circuit, a laboratory-size detector cooled to 0.05 K in the absence of other noise could detect a continuous wave metric perturbation he 3×10-26 at the frequency of the Crab pulsar after integration for 100 days. © 1979 The American Physical Society.