THE SENSITIVITY OF ANTENNAS FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTION

Abstract

This work shows that the quantum calculation of the energy exchanged between gravitational waves and resonating antennas contains a term linear in the Riemann tensor if the oscillator is supposed to be in a coherent state, while it contains only quadratic terms if it is in a stationary state. In some cases the latter hypothesis, presently accepted in the literature, underestimates the sensitivity of GW antennas by several orders of magnitude. The authors show the need for the correction of the error, while its origin and consequences are explained.