Republication of: Electromagnetically coupled broadband gravitational antenna

Abstract

Abstract This paper, originally printed 50 years ago, was the first to provide a detailed discussion of the possible design of an interferometric gravitational-wave detector. In particular, unlike any previous paper based on a similar idea, it provides a detailed analysis of the noise sources and their mitigation. Since the work eventually led to opening up the whole field of gravitational-wave astronomy, as described in the accompanying editorial note, with many exciting results already, and brought the author a share in a Nobel Prize, it is one of the most significant papers in the Golden Oldies series.