Significant progress has been made in recent years on the development of gravitational wave detectors. Sources such as coalescing compact binary systems, low-mass X-ray binaries, stellar collapses and pulsars are all possible candidates for detection. The most promising design of gravitational wave detector uses test masses a long distance apart and freely suspended as pendulums on Earth or in drag-free craft in space. The main theme of this review is a discussion of the mechanical and optical principles used in the various long baseline systems being built around the world — LIGO (USA), VIRGO (Italy/France), TAMA 300 (Japan) and GEO 600 (Germany/UK) — and in LISA, a proposed space-borne interferometer.

近年来，引力波探测器的发展取得了重大进展。诸如聚结致密双星系统、低质量X射线双星、恒星塌缩和脉冲星等来源都是可能被探测到的候选源。最有前途的引力波探测器设计使用相距很远的测试质量，并作为摆锤自由悬挂在地球上或太空中的无阻力飞行器中。本次审查的主题是讨论世界各地正在建造的各种长基线系统中使用的机械和光学原理——LIGO（美国）、VIRGO（意大利/法国）、TAMA 300（日本）和 GEO 600（德国） /UK）——以及 LISA，一种拟议的星载干涉仪。