Feasibility of a table-top gravitational wave detector

A new window to the universe has opened with the detection of Gravitational Waves (GW) by the Laser Interferometer GW Observatory (LIGO). GW interact weakly with matter carrying information about their origins across the universe without modification. LIGO senses GW frequencies only between 5 and 1000Hz, restricting it to observe a small sampling of events. We show the feasibility of a ground-based GW detector to fill the critical frequency gap from 10−3 Hz to 1 Hz, rich in important GW sources (intermediate mass ratio inspirals; high-mass galactic black hole binaries) which no current facility can see. The planned tabletop GW sensor is enabled by breakthroughs in frequency combs. While the LIGO measures the amplitude of interfering beams, we measure directly the signal phase, having demonstrated 10-10 radian sensitivity in a mode-locked cavity in which two pulses circulate. Sensitivity enhancement to be applied include miniaturization (100x), dispersion and squeezing.