Gravitational Wave Detector: Michelson Interferometer Response (2D)

This 2D companion to the 3D ring-of-test-masses simulator zooms out from the spacetime distortion itself to the instrument built to measure it. A gravitational wave stretches an L-shaped Michelson interferometer's two perpendicular arms in opposite senses, and this simulator computes that differential arm-length signal directly from the same quadrupole geodesic-deviation strain used in the 3D view, then carries it through to a round-trip optical phase shift and a photodetector interference intensity — the actual observable a real detector like LIGO records. Because the arms sit fixed along the detector's own axes, the simulation reproduces a genuine and often-missed feature of real interferometric detectors: a pure cross-polarized wave in the detector's own frame produces zero differential-arm signal, even though its strain amplitude is nonzero. Sweep the polarization mix, strain amplitude, frequency and optical sensitivity to see the detector's antenna pattern and its nonlinear intensity response in action.