On a quantum model of a laser-interferometer measuring a weak classical force
We consider a solvable model of a laser-interferometer measuring a weak classical force. The model takes into account dissipation of the energy by transfer to the environment at zero temperature. The sensitivity (the signal-to-noise ratio) of the device is defined as the corresponding ratio between the mean value and the variance of a certain observable. We analyze the dependence of the sensitivity upon the duration of the measurement and the photon number. For parameters typical for the LIGO project, we discuss numerical estimates.
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