Title

Feasibility of Measuring the Shapiro Time Delay over Meter-Scale Distances

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Stefan Ballmer, Syracuse UniversityFollow
S. Marka, Syracuse University
P. Shawhan, University of Maryland

Document Type

Working Paper

Date

2009

Keywords

General Relativity, Quantum Cosmology

Language

English

Disciplines

Physics

Description/Abstract

The time delay of light as it passes by a massive object, first calculated by Shapiro in 1964, is a hallmark of the curvature of space-time. To date, all measurements of the Shapiro time delay have been made over solar-system distance scales. We show that the new generation of kilometer-scale laser interferometers being constructed as gravitational wave detectors, in particular Advanced LIGO, will in principle be sensitive enough to measure variations in the Shapiro time delay produced by a suitably designed rotating object placed near the laser beam. We show that such an apparatus is feasible (though not easy) to construct, present an example design, and calculate the signal that would be detectable by Advanced LIGO. This offers the first opportunity to measure space-time curvature effects on a laboratory distance scale.

Additional Information

13 pages, 6 figures; v3 has updated instrumental noise curves plus a few text edits; resubmitted to Classical and Quantum Gravity

Recommended Citation

Ballmer, Stefan; Marka, S.; and Shawhan, P., "Feasibility of Measuring the Shapiro Time Delay over Meter-Scale Distances" (2009). Physics - All Scholarship. 12.
https://surface.syr.edu/phy/12

Source

Metadata from ArXiv.org

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.