Improved Ar(II) transition probabilities

Precise Ar(II) branching ratios have been measured on a high current hollow cathode with a 1-m Fourier transform spectrometer. Absolute transition probabilities for 11 Ar(II) lines were calculated from these branching ratios and lifetime measurements published by Mohamed et al. For the prominent 4806 Å line, the present result is Aik = 7.12×107s-1 ±2.8%, which is in excellent agreement with recent literature data derived from pure argon diagnostics, two-wavelength-interferometry, and Hβ-diagnostics when using the theoretical data of Vidal et al

Oscillator strengths of Ti II from combined hook and emission measurements

It is demonstrated that a large set of accurate oscillator strengths of Ti II can be determined from a combination of hook and emission measurements without any assumption concerning the plasma state. Modified cascaded arcs and hollow cathode discharges have been used as plasma light sources for both hook and emission measurements. The relative f values have been converted to an absolute scale by means of literature data. The overall uncertainties of the f values are about 13-25%. Comparisons with other experimental and theoretical data are made which indicate excellent to fair agreement. Only for one of the published data sets has a wavelength-dependent discrepancy of up to a factor of two been found

Laser power stabilization for second-generation gravitational wave detectors

We present results on the power stabilization of a Nd:YAG laser in the frequency band from 1 Hz to 100 kHz. High-power, low-noise photodetectors are used in a dc-coupled control loop to achieve relative power fluctuations down to 5×10−9 Hz−1/2 at 10 Hz and 3.5×10−9 Hz−1/2 up to several kHz, which is very close to the shot-noise limit for 80 mA of detected photocurrent on each detector. We investigated and eliminated several noise sources such as ground loops and beam pointing. The achieved stability level is close to the requirements for the Advanced LIGO gravitational wave detector

Population densities in a titanium hollow cathode

Measurements are reported of population densities in the energy level systems of neutral and singly ionised titanium. The discharge under investigation was a high-current hollow cathode operated in argon or neon as a buffer gas. The measured kinetic and population temperatures of the neutral species differ by more than a factor of two. For the metal ions there is direct evidence of the effects of charge transfer and Penning collisions producing departures from a Boltzmann distribution. For the Ar-Ti hollow-cathode system inversion between the populations of the 5s and 5p configurations has been found

Argon branching ratios for spectral intensity calibration: a reply

Branching ratios have been obtained for 33 lines originating from nine levels in Ar II by Fourier spectroscopic measurements on a high-current hollow cathode. The values are compared with recent literature data

Subtraction of temperature induced phase noise in the LISA frequency band

Temperature fluctuations are expected to be one of the limiting factors for gravitational wave detectors in the very low frequency range. Here we report the characterisation of this noise source in the LISA Pathfinder optical bench and propose a method to remove its contribution from the data. Our results show that temperature fluctuations are indeed limiting our measurement below one millihertz, and that their subtraction leads to a factor 5.6 (15 dB) reduction in the noise level at the lower end of the LISA measurement band 10^{-4} Hz, which increases to 20.2 (26 dB) at even lower frequencies, i.e., 1.5x10^{-5} Hz. The method presented here can be applied to the subtraction of other noise sources in gravitational wave detectors in the general situation where multiple sensors are used to characterise the noise source.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Intermediate-mass-ratio-inspirals in the Einstein Telescope. II. Parameter estimation errors

We explore the precision with which the Einstein Telescope (ET) will be able to measure the parameters of intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals (IMRIs). We calculate the parameter estimation errors using the Fisher Matrix formalism and present results of a Monte Carlo simulation of these errors over choices for the extrinsic parameters of the source. These results are obtained using two different models for the gravitational waveform which were introduced in paper I of this series. These two waveform models include the inspiral, merger and ringdown phases in a consistent way. One of the models, based on the transition scheme of Ori & Thorne [1], is valid for IMBHs of arbitrary spin, whereas the second model, based on the Effective One Body (EOB) approach, has been developed to cross-check our results in the non-spinning limit. In paper I of this series, we demonstrated the excellent agreement in both phase and amplitude between these two models for non-spinning black holes, and that their predictions for signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) are consistent to within ten percent. We now use these models to estimate parameter estimation errors for binary systems with masses 1.4+100, 10+100, 1.4+500 and 10+500 solar masses (SMs), and various choices for the spin of the central intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH). Assuming a detector network of three ETs, the analysis shows that for a 10 SM compact object (CO) inspiralling into a 100 SM IMBH with spin q=0.3, detected with an SNR of 30, we should be able to determine the CO and IMBH masses, and the IMBH spin magnitude to fractional accuracies of 0.001, 0.0003, and 0.001, respectively. We also expect to determine the location of the source in the sky and the luminosity distance to within 0.003 steradians, and 10%, respectively. We also assess how the precision of parameter determination depends on the network configuration.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures. One reference corrected in v3 for consistency with published version in Phys Rev

TDI and clock noise removal for the split interferometry configuration of LISA

Laser phase noise is the dominant noise source in the on-board measurements of the space-based gravitational wave detector LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna). A well-known data analysis technique, the so-called time-delay interferometry (TDI), provides synthesized data streams free of laser phase noise. At the same time, TDI also removes the next largest noise source: phase fluctuations of the on-board clocks which distort the sampling process. TDI needs precise information about the spacecraft separations, sampling times and differential clock noise between the three spacecrafts. These are measured using auxiliary modulations on the laser light. Hence, there is a need for algorithms that account for clock noise removal schemes combined with TDI while preserving the gravitational wave signal. In this paper, we will present the mathematical formulation of the LISA-like data streams and discuss a compliant algorithm that corrects for both clock and laser noise in the case of a rotating, non-breathing LISA constellation. In contrast to previous papers, we consider the current optical bench design (split interferometry configuration), i.e. the test mass readout is done by the local oscillators only, instead of reflecting the weak inter-spacecraft light off the test mass. Furthermore, the absolute order of laser frequencies is taken into account and it can be shown that the TDI equations remain invariant. This is a crucial issue and was, up to now, completely neglected in the analysis

A high-current hollow cathode as a source of intense line radiation in the VUV

The VUV line emission of a high-current DC hollow cathode was investigated in the wavelength region 10 nm to 100 nm. Spectra of quadruply ionised atoms could be observed. The radiance in the Al IV lines at 13 nm and 16 nm and in the He II Lyman-series was determined by a comparison with the spectral concentration of radiant intensity of the synchrotron radiation emitted by the electron storage ring BESSY. The authors found the radiance of the lines to be reproducible within +or-25%

Quantum engineering of squeezed states for quantum communication and metrology

We report the experimental realization of squeezed quantum states of light, tailored for new applications in quantum communication and metrology. Squeezed states in a broad Fourier frequency band down to 1 Hz has been observed for the first time. Nonclassical properties of light in such a low frequency band is required for high efficiency quantum information storage in electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) media. The states observed also cover the frequency band of ultra-high precision laser interferometers for gravitational wave detection and can be used to reach the regime of quantum non-demolition interferometry. And furthermore, they cover the frequencies of motions of heavily macroscopic objects and might therefore support the attempts to observe entanglement in our macroscopic world.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure