Long before LIGO

Identification of long-duration noise transients in LIGO and Virgo

Strawman LIGO II Design: A Quantum Limited Interferometer for LIGO

of design The basic optical configuration is a power-recycled and signal-recycled Michelson interferometer with Fabry-Perot ‘transducers’ in the arms. This requires the addition of a signal recycling mirror to the suspended optics at the output ‘dark’ port, and changes in the RF modulation and control systems. The control system relies on a hierarchy of actuators in the seismic and suspension s...

The Advanced LIGO Photon Calibrators The Advanced LIGO Photon Calibrators

The Advanced LIGO Photon Calibrators S. Karki, 2, a) D. Tuyenbayev, 3 S. Kandhasamy, 5 B. P. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, E. H. Anders, J. Berliner, J. Betzwieser, H. P. Daveloza, C. Cahillane, L. Canete, C. Conley, 6 J. R. Gleason, E. Goetz, 6 J. S. Kissel, K. Izumi, G. Mendell, V. Quetschke, M. Rodruck, S. Sachdev, T. Sadecki, P. B. Schwinberg, A. Sottile, 9 M. Wade, A. J. Weinstein, M. West, 11 and...

The Ligo Detectors Controls

All three LIGO detectors have reached their design sensitivities. A sky-averaged detection range (SNR > 8) of more than 15 Mpc for inspiral binary neutron stars with masses of 1.4 Msol has been achieved with the two 4 km instruments. The fifth LIGO science started in November 2005 and ended September 2007. About 365 days of coincidence data have been collected. The feedback controls system is a...

Astronomical Goals of Ligo

The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) experiment consists of three Fabry-Perot interferometers designed to measure the infinitesimal perfurbations of the curvature of spacetime due to the motion of massive astronomical bodies. The interferometers are sensitive to strains of h ∼ 10 in a frequency range from 40 Hz to 1 kHz. Sources of astronomical interest include binary ...