Europe as an issue in French domestic politics : the troubled evolution on the right

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Internal friction of fused silica and gravitational-wave detection

The research presented in this thesis studies the internal friction of fused silica in the context of its use in interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. There are three major aspects to this dissertation: (1) A thorough review of literature on glass science relevant to the engineering of low internal friction silica glass devices; it is clear that high purity, synthetic fused silica is necessary for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) goals. (2) New results on measurements of internal friction in fused silica using both resonant vibration and anelastic aftereffect techniques; the evidence suggests the best loss factor achievable with fused silica at room temperature is approximately [straight phi] ∼ 3 × 10 -8 . (3) A study of the development, use, and outlook for the Syracuse anelastic aftereffect apparatus. It is currently limited by systematic errors at the level of [straight phi] ∼ 5 × 10 -7 . Were these systematic errors to be eliminated, random errors presently would limit experimental sensitivity at the 10 -8 level