Prospects for high-frequency gravitational-wave detection with GEO600
Phys. Rev. D 113, 024057 – Published 26 January, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/y3h1-lqy3
Abstract
Current ground-based interferometers are optimized for sensitivity from a few tens of Hz to about 1 kHz. While they are not currently utilized for gravitational wave (GW) detection, interferometric detectors also feature narrow bands of strong sensitivity at higher frequencies where the sideband fields created by a GW are resonantly amplified in the optical system. Small changes to system parameters allow the narrow band of high sensitivity to be scanned over a much larger range of frequencies. In this paper, we investigate whether simply modifying the detuning angle of the signal-recycling mirror of the GEO600 interferometer can make this experiment sensitive to GWs in the kilohertz frequency range. We compute the strain sensitivity for GEO600 across a frequency range from several kHz to tens of kHz for various detuning angles. We also show that LIGO cannot attain the same effect assuming that the optical components are not changed due to the narrow band response of the Fabry-Perot cavities. We then calculate the sensitivity of GEO600 to various proposed high-frequency GW sources and compare it to the sensitivity of other ground-based detectors.
