From LIGO to Fiber- Compact Sagnac Interferometer for Gravitational-Wave Detection

Abstract

Gravitational wave detection has transformed astrophysics, granting us direct access to black hole mergers, neutron star collisions, and the cataclysms of stellar death. Yet the great observatories of today, LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and the planned Einstein Telescope, rest on Michelson interferometers that, despite their triumphs, confront fundamental barriers of scale, cost, and environmental vulnerability. We envision a new path, a Sagnac-based fiber interferometer that leverages reciprocity and inherent robustness. Its meter-scale, modular design compact enough to fit within a small facility, offers dramatic gains in scalability and affordability over kilometer scale Michelson systems. Tunable to frequency bands where conventional detectors lose sensitivity, it opens the door to compact, versatile, and accessible GW observatories, empowering universities and research centers worldwide. Linked together in a global network, such facilities could transcend mere detection, they could localize cosmic sources and reconstruct them into images, much as black holes were first directly revealed, ushering in a new era of gravitational-wave astronomy and multi-messenger discovery.