Finesse is a fast interferometer simulation program. For a given optical setup, it computes the light field amplitudes at every point in the interferometer assuming a steady state. To do so, the interferometer description is translated into a set of linear equations that are solved numerically. For convenience, a number of standard analyses can be performed automatically by the program, namely computing modulation-demodulation error signals, transfer functions, shot-noise-limited sensitivities, and beam shapes. Finesse can perform the analysis using the plane-wave approximation or Hermite-Gauss modes. The latter allows computation of the properties of optical systems like telescopes and the effects of mode matching and mirror angular positions.
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