Gravitational wave detection by a spherical antenna: The angular sensitivity of resonators in the truncated icosahedral gravitational wave antenna configuration and its variation with sidereal time and galactic longitude

Experimental projects using spherical antennas to detect gravitational waves are nowadays a concrete reality. The main purpose of this paper is to give a possible way of interpreting output data from such a system. Responses of the five fundamental quadrupole modes and of the six resonators in truncated icosahedral gravitational wave antenna (TIGA) collocations are shown as a function of the incoming direction of the incident wave. Then, for a source lying in the galactic plane, sidereal time and galactic longitude dependence is given. Thus, once a candidate source of gravitational waves is considered, we can exactly predict the resonators’ response as a function of time.