Gauge independent response of a laser interferometer to gravitational waves

Abstract: Laser interferometer response to a plane gravitational wave on the Minkowski background is given. The derivation does not assume any particular gauge within a class compatible with almost Minkowskian coordinates that preserve a plane wave form of the solutions. Consequently all ten modes of the metric are taken into an account. The final result, the time of flight of a laser signal exchanged between freely moving observers, is expressed in the form of integrals of the metric perturbations taken along the undisturbed trajectories. The result can be applied in any metric theory o gravity; it is valid in the first order of the perturbation and does not assume the long wavelength approximation. The obtained response is shown to define an observable, i.e. it is gauge--invariant with respect to the assumed class of gauge transformations