Optimal Design of Coatings for Mirrors of Gravitational Wave Detectors: Analytic Turbo Solution via Herpin Equivalent Layers

In this paper, an analytical solution to the problem of optimal dielectric coating design of mirrors for gravitational wave detectors is found. The technique used to solve this problem is based on Herpin’s equivalent layers, which provide a simple, constructive, and analytical solution. The performance of the Herpin-type design exceeds that of the periodic design and is almost equal to the performance of the numerical, non-constructive optimized design obtained by brute force. Note that the existence of explicit analytic constructive solutions of a constrained optimization problem is not guaranteed in general, when such a solution is found, we speak of turbo optimal solutions.