Prospects for the Detection of Gravity Wave Bursts

Abstract

Many excellent reviews of gravitational wave astronomy have appeared in the literature (see for example Thorne 1980 and references cited there). Much has also been written on the potential of the second generation of Weber-bar detectors which, operating at low temperatures and exploiting superconducting technology, have design sensitivities up to a million times greater than those of a decade ago. Indeed such has been the intensity of activity in this area, that even before this generation of cryogenic detectors has come of age, a third generation, quantum mechanical in outlook, is already being conceived.