摘要：LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is a physicsexperiment that aims to directly detect a gravitational wave, an unconfirmedcomponent of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. LIGO is composed of two detectors called interferometers; one of which is in Hanford,Washington, and the other in Livingston, Louisiana. A LIGO interferometerconsists of two perpendicular, four kilometer arms. At the end of each armis a mirror, called a test mass. Normally, laser light splits into both arms,reflects off both test masses, and then recombines in the same phase. Intheory, a gravitational wave stretches space along one arm and compressesspace along another, which causes the laser light to travel different distancesand recombine in different phases. Thus, detection of gravitational waves canbe achieved by studying the behavior of the recombined laser light.
