= Rainer Weiss
{c}
{tag=Physicist}
{title2=1932–2025}
{wiki}
<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.<Electromagnetically coupled broadband gravitational antenna by Rainer Weiss>[Sections on antenna design, optical readout and noise mechanisms]{ref}
\Image[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Redirect/file/Rainer%20Weiss%20-%20December%202006%20%28cropped%29.jpg?width=250]
{title=Portrait of <Rainer Weiss>}
{description=Michael Hauser; required Commons attribution Dhs at English Wikipedia; existing crop by Neegzistuoja and level adjustment by WikiPedant. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/[Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (selected from Commons GFDL migration licensing).], via Wikimedia Commons.}
{source=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rainer_Weiss_-_December_2006_(cropped).jpg}
{width=250}
Back to article page
