1,189 research outputs found
Gamma-pulse-height evaluation of a USA Savannah River Site Burial Ground special configuration waste item
Adaptive thermal compensation of test masses in advanced LIGO
As the first generation of laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors
near operation, research and development has begun on increasing the
instrument's sensitivity while utilizing the existing infrastructure. In the
Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), significant
improvements are being planned for installation in ~2007, increasing strain
sensitivity through improved suspensions and test mass substrates, active
seismic isolation, and higher input laser power. Even with the highest quality
optics available today, however, finite absorption of laser power within
transmissive optics, coupled with the tremendous amount of optical power
circulating in various parts of the interferometer, result in critical
wavefront deformations which would cripple the performance of the instrument.
Discussed is a method of active wavefront correction via direct thermal
actuation on optical elements of the interferometer. A simple nichrome heating
element suspended off the face of an affected optic will, through radiative
heating, remove the gross axisymmetric part of the original thermal distortion.
A scanning heating laser will then be used to remove any remaining
non-axisymmetric wavefront distortion, generated by inhomogeneities in the
substrate's absorption, thermal conductivity, etc. A proof-of-principle
experiment has been constructed at MIT, selected data of which are presented.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit
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LRAD soil surface contamination monitor test and demonstration at the Savannah River Site
The Savannah River Site (SRS) Solid Waste Management (SWM) organization requested Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) / Analytical Development Section (ADS) assistance in evaluating a Long Range Alpha Detector (LRAD) as a soil surface contamination monitor. Solid Waste Management also contracted TMA NcClean to bring the equipment to SRS and to operate it during the demonstration. For the demonstration, we measured LRAD signals above different surface materials including asphalt, concrete, clay soil, sandy soil, gravel, and a plywood sheet. This report describes the tests conducted at SRTC in the period August 22, 1995 through August 24, 1995. In order to put the data that were acquired in these tests in perspective, the physical principals on which LRAD is based are discussed
Hadronic Atoms and Effective Interactions
We examine the problem of hadronic atom energy shifts using the technique of
effective interactions and demonstrate equivalence with the conventional
quantum mechanical approach.Comment: 22 page latex file with 2 figure
New Photodetection Method Using Unbalanced Sidebands for Squeezed Quantum Noise in Gravitational Wave Interferometer
Homodyne detection is one of the ways to circumvent the standard quantum
limit for a gravitational wave detector. In this paper it will be shown that
the same quantum-non-demolition effect using homodyne detection can be realized
by heterodyne detection with unbalanced RF sidebands. Furthermore, a broadband
quantum-non-demolition readout scheme can also be realized by the unbalanced
sideband detection.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Robust vetoes for gravitational-wave burst triggers using known instrumental couplings
The search for signatures of transient, unmodelled gravitational-wave (GW)
bursts in the data of ground-based interferometric detectors typically uses
`excess-power' search methods. One of the most challenging problems in the
burst-data-analysis is to distinguish between actual GW bursts and spurious
noise transients that trigger the detection algorithms. In this paper, we
present a unique and robust strategy to `veto' the instrumental glitches. This
method makes use of the phenomenological understanding of the coupling of
different detector sub-systems to the main detector output. The main idea
behind this method is that the noise at the detector output (channel H) can be
projected into two orthogonal directions in the Fourier space -- along, and
orthogonal to, the direction in which the noise in an instrumental channel X
would couple into H. If a noise transient in the detector output originates
from channel X, it leaves the statistics of the noise-component of H orthogonal
to X unchanged, which can be verified by a statistical hypothesis testing. This
strategy is demonstrated by doing software injections in simulated Gaussian
noise. We also formulate a less-rigorous, but computationally inexpensive
alternative to the above method. Here, the parameters of the triggers in
channel X are compared to the parameters of the triggers in channel H to see
whether a trigger in channel H can be `explained' by a trigger in channel X and
the measured transfer function.Comment: 14 Pages, 8 Figures, To appear in Class. Quantum Gra
Control sideband generation for dual-recycled laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors
We present a discussion of the problems associated with generation of multiple control sidebands for length sensing and control of dual-recycled, cavity-enhanced Michelson interferometers and the motivation behind more complicated sideband generation methods. We focus on the Mach–Zehnder interferometer as a topological solution to the problem and present results from tests carried out at the Caltech 40 m prototype gravitational wave detector. The consequences for sensing and control for advanced interferometry are discussed, as are the implications for future interferometers such as Advanced LIGO
Long term study of the seismic environment at LIGO
The LIGO experiment aims to detect and study gravitational waves using ground
based laser interferometry. A critical factor to the performance of the
interferometers, and a major consideration in the design of possible future
upgrades, is isolation of the interferometer optics from seismic noise. We
present the results of a detailed program of measurements of the seismic
environment surrounding the LIGO interferometers. We describe the experimental
configuration used to collect the data, which was acquired over a 613 day
period. The measurements focused on the frequency range 0.1-10 Hz, in which the
secondary microseismic peak and noise due to human activity in the vicinity of
the detectors was found to be particularly critical to interferometer
performance. We compare the statistical distribution of the data sets from the
two interferometer sites, construct amplitude spectral densities of seismic
noise amplitude fluctuations with periods of up to 3 months, and analyze the
data for any long term trends in the amplitude of seismic noise in this
critical frequency range.Comment: To be published in Classical and Quantum Gravity. 24 pages, 15
figure
Phase and alignment noise in grating interferometers
Diffraction gratings have been proposed as core optical elements in future
laser-interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. In this paper we derive
equations for the coupling between alignment noise and phase noise at
diffraction gratings. In comparison to a standard reflective component (mirror
or beam splitter) the diffractive nature of the gratings causes an additional
coupling of geometry changes into alignment and phase noise. Expressions for
the change in angle and optical path length of each outgoing beam are provided
as functions of a translation or rotation of the incoming beam with respect to
the grating. The analysis is based entirely on the grating equation and the
geometry of the setup. We further analyse exemplary optical setups which have
been proposed for the use in future gravitational wave detectors. We find that
the use of diffraction gratings yields a strong coupling of alignment noise
into phase noise. By comparing the results with the specifications of current
detectors we show that this additional noise coupling results in new,
challenging requirements for the suspension and isolation systems for the
optical components.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure
Perturbative framework for the pi(+)pi(-) atom
The perturbative framework is developed for the calculation of the pi(+)pi(-)
atom characteristics on the basis of the field-theoretical Bethe-Salpeter
approach. A closed expression for the first-order correction to the pi(+)pi(-)
atom lifetime has been obtained.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX-fil
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