Rainer Weiss analyzed a broadband interferometric detector for gravitational waves. His 1972 report compared the response of separated freely moving masses with an optical readout, and calculated competing sources of instrumental noise.
A gravitational wave produces a differential change in the arms of an interferometer; the associated phase change in laser light supplies the observable. The difficulty is distinguishing that tiny relative response from mirror motion, thermal fluctuations and optical noise. Treating the signal and its noise budget together made the proposal a testable instrument design.[ref]
Electromagnetically coupled broadband gravitational antenna by Rainer Weiss. Sections on antenna design, optical readout and noise mechanisms
Portrait of Rainer Weiss
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Rainer Weiss is a prominent American physicist known for his contributions to the field of gravitational physics and astrophysics. He is best known as one of the co-founders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which made groundbreaking discoveries in the detection of gravitational waves. This achievement, announced in 2015, confirmed a key prediction of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity and opened a new era in astrophysics.