Figure 1

Figure 1: In Einstein’s theory, gravitational waves have two independent polarizations. The effect on proper separations of particles in a circular ring in the (x,y)-plane due to a plus-polarized wave traveling in the z-direction is shown in (a) and due to a cross-polarized wave is shown in (b). The ring continuously gets deformed into one of the ellipses and back during the first half of a gravitational wave period and gets deformed into the other ellipse and back during the next half.