279 research outputs found
MiniGRAIL progress report 2004
The MiniGRAIL detector was improved. The sphere was replaced by a slightly larger one, having a diameter of 68 cm (instead of 65 cm), reducing the resonant frequency by about 200 Hz to around 2.9 kHz. The last four masses of the attenuation system were machined to increase their resonant frequency and improve the attenuation around the resonant frequency of the sphere. In the new sphere, six holes were machined on the TIGA positions for easy mounting of the transducers. During the last cryogenic run, two capacitive transducers and a calibrator were mounted on the sphere. The first transducer was coupled to a double-stage SQUID amplifier having a commercial quantum design SQUID as a first stage and a DROS as a second stage. The second transducer was read by a single-stage quantum design SQUID. During the cryogenic run, the sphere was cooled down to 4 K. The two-stage SQUID had a flux noise of about 1.6 ÎŒ0 Hzâ1/2. The detector was calibrated and the sensitivity curve of MiniGRAIL was determined
On the crosscorrelation between Gravitational Wave Detectors for detecting association with Gamma Ray Bursts
Crosscorrelation of the outputs of two Gravitational Wave (GW) detectors has
recently been proposed [1] as a method for detecting statistical association
between GWs and Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). Unfortunately, the method can be
effectively used only in the case of stationary noise. In this work a different
crosscorrelation algorithm is presented, which may effectively be applied also
in non-stationary conditions for the cumulative analysis of a large number of
GRBs. The value of the crosscorrelation at zero delay, which is the only one
expected to be correlated to any astrophysical signal, is compared with the
distribution of crosscorrelation of the same data for all non-zero delays
within the integration time interval. This background distribution is gaussian,
so the statistical significance of an experimentally observed excess would be
well-defined.
Computer simulations using real noise data of the cryogenic GW detectors
Explorer and Nautilus with superimposed delta-like signals were performed, to
test the effectiveness of the method, and theoretical estimates of its
sensitivity compared to the results of the simulation. The effectiveness of the
proposed algorithm is compared to that of other cumulative techniques, finding
that the algorithm is particularly effective in the case of non-gaussian noise
and of a large (100-1000s) and unpredictable delay between GWs and GRBs.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Submitted by Phys. Rev.
Effect of cosmic rays on the resonant gravitational wave detector NAUTILUS at temperature T=1.5 K
The interaction between cosmic rays and the gravitational wave bar detector
NAUTILUS is experimentally studied with the aluminum bar at temperature of
T=1.5 K. The results are compared with those obtained in the previous runs when
the bar was at T=0.14 K. The results of the run at T = 1.5 K are in agreement
with the thermo-acoustic model; no large signals at unexpected rate are
noticed, unlike the data taken in the run at T = 0.14 K. The observations
suggest a larger efficiency in the mechanism of conversion of the particle
energy into vibrational mode energy when the aluminum bar is in the
superconductive status.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by Physics Letters
All-sky upper limit for gravitational radiation from spinning neutron stars
We present results of the all-sky search for gravitational-wave signals from
spinning neutron stars in the data of the EXPLORER resonant bar detector. Our
data analysis technique was based on the maximum likelihood detection method.
We briefly describe the theoretical methods that we used in our search. The
main result of our analysis is an upper limit of for
the dimensionless amplitude of the continuous gravitational-wave signals coming
from any direction in the sky and in the narrow frequency band from 921.00 Hz
to 921.76 Hz.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Proceedings of 7th Gravitational
Wave Data Analysis Workshop, December 17-19, 2002, Kyoto, Japa
Increasing the bandwidth of resonant gravitational antennas: The case of Explorer
Resonant gravitational wave detectors with an observation bandwidth of tens
of hertz are a reality: the antenna Explorer, operated at CERN by the ROG
collaboration, has been upgraded with a new read-out. In this new
configuration, it exhibits an unprecedented useful bandwidth: in over 55 Hz
about its frequency of operation of 919 Hz the spectral sensitivity is better
than 10^{-20} /sqrt(Hz) . We describe the detector and its sensitivity and
discuss the foreseable upgrades to even larger bandwidths.Comment: 4 pages- 4 figures Acceted for publication on Physical Review Letter
Initial operation of the International Gravitational Event Collaboration
The International Gravitational Event Collaboration, IGEC, is a coordinated
effort by research groups operating gravitational wave detectors working
towards the detection of millisecond bursts of gravitational waves. Here we
report on the current IGEC resonant bar observatory, its data analysis
procedures, the main properties of the first exchanged data set. Even though
the available data set is not complete, in the years 1997 and 1998 up to four
detectors were operating simultaneously. Preliminary results are mentioned.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables; Proceeding of the GWDAW'99. Submitted
to the International Journal of Modern Physic
Study of the coincidences between the gravitational wave detectors EXPLORER and NAUTILUS in 2001
We report the result from a search for bursts of gravitational waves using
data collected by the cryogenic resonant detectors EXPLORER and NAUTILUS during
the year 2001, for a total measuring time of 90 days. With these data we
repeated the coincidence search performed on the 1998 data (which showed a
small coincidence excess) applying data analysis algorithms based on known
physical characteristics of the detectors. With the 2001 data a new interesting
coincidence excess is found when the detectors are favorably oriented with
respect to the Galactic Disk
IGEC2: A 17-month search for gravitational wave bursts in 2005-2007
We present here the results of a 515 days long run of the IGEC2 observatory,
consisting of the four resonant mass detectors ALLEGRO, AURIGA, EXPLORER and
NAUTILUS. The reported results are related to the fourfold observation time
from Nov. 6 2005 until Apr. 14 2007, when Allegro ceased its operation. This
period overlapped with the first long term observations performed by the LIGO
interferometric detectors. The IGEC observations aim at the identification of
gravitational wave candidates with high confidence, keeping the false alarm
rate at the level of 1 per century, and high duty cycle, namely 57% with all
four sites and 94% with at least three sites in simultaneous observation. The
network data analysis is based on time coincidence searches over at least three
detectors: the four 3-fold searches and the 4-fold one are combined in a
logical OR. We exchanged data with the usual blind procedure, by applying a
unique confidential time offset to the events in each set of data. The
accidental background was investigated by performing sets of 10^8 coincidence
analyses per each detector configuration on off-source data, obtained by
shifting the time series of each detector. The thresholds of the five searches
were tuned so as to control the overall false alarm rate to 1/century. When the
confidential time shifts was disclosed, no gravitational wave candidate was
found in the on-source data. As an additional output of this search, we make
available to other observatories the list of triple coincidence found below
search thresholds, corresponding to a false alarm rate of 1/month.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures Accepted for publication on Phys. Rev.
All-sky search of NAUTILUS data
A search for periodic gravitational-wave signals from isolated neutron stars
in the NAUTILUS detector data is presented. We have analyzed half a year of
data over the frequency band Hz/s and over the entire sky. We have divided the
data into 2 day stretches and we have analyzed each stretch coherently using
matched filtering. We have imposed a low threshold for the optimal detection
statistic to obtain a set of candidates that are further examined for
coincidences among various data stretches. For some candidates we have also
investigated the change of the signal-to-noise ratio when we increase the
observation time from two to four days. Our analysis has not revealed any
gravitational-wave signals. Therefore we have imposed upper limits on the
dimensionless gravitational-wave amplitude over the parameter space that we
have searched. Depending on frequency, our upper limit ranges from to . We have attempted a statistical
verification of the hypotheses leading to our conclusions. We estimate that our
upper limit is accurate to within 18%.Comment: LaTeX, 12 page
Search for Periodic Gravitational Wave Sources with the Explorer Detector
We have developped a procedure for the search of periodic signals in the data
of gravitational wave detectors. We report here the analysis of one year of
data from the resonant detector Explorer, searching for pulsars located in the
Galactic Center (GC). No signals with amplitude greater than , in the range 921.32-921.38 Hz, were observed using data
collected over a time period of 95.7 days, for a source located at
hours and degrees. Our
procedure can be extended for any assumed position in the sky and for a more
general all-sky search, even with a frequency correction at the source due to
the spin-down and Doppler effects.Comment: One zipped file (Latex+eps figures). 33 pages, 14 figures. This and
related material also at http://grwav3.roma1.infn.it
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