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Abstract

Since the pioneering work of Joseph Weber more than a decade ago there has been a continuing effort towards the development of more sensitive gravitational wave detectors. There are a number of interesting astrophysical sources of gravitational waves including coalescing compact binary star systems, stellar collapses and rotating neutron stars, and to detect all of these is likely to require a strain sensitivity better than 10-22 over a bandwidth of a few hundred Hz at frequencies at or below 1kHz. To achieve such sensitivity requires considerable experimental ingenuity; however work in a number of laboratories suggests that such performance should be attainable using laser interferometry between freely suspended masses separated by a distance of the order of a kilometre. This paper includes a review of possible sources and outlines methods of detection currently being developed or planned, with particular emphasis on long baseline laser interferometers.