The Experimental plan of the 4m Resonant Sideband Extraction Prototype for The LCGT

The 4m Resonant Sideband Extraction (RSE) interferometer is a planned prototype of the LCGT interferometer. The aim of the experiment is to operate a powerrecycled Broadband RSE interferometer with suspended optics and to achieve diagonalization of length signals of the central part of the interferometer directly through the optical setup. Details of the 4m RSE interferometer control method as well as the design of the experimental setup will be presented

Isolation of gravitational waves from displacement noise and utility of a time-delay device

Interferometers with kilometer-scale arms have been built for gravitational-wave detections on the ground; ones with much longer arms are being planned for space-based detection. One fundamental motivation for long baseline interferometry is from displacement noise. In general, the longer the arm length L, the larger the motion the gravitational-wave induces on the test masses, until L becomes comparable to the gravitational wavelength. Recently, schemes have been invented, in which displacement noises can be evaded by employing differences between the influence of test-mass motions and that of gravitational waves on light propagation. However, in these schemes, such differences only becomes significant when L approaches the gravitational wavelength, and shot-noise limited sensitivity becomes worse than that of conventional configurations by a factor of at least (f L/c)^(-2), for f<c/L. Such a factor, although can be overcome theoretically by employing high optical powers, makes these schemes quite impractical. In this paper, we explore the use of time delay in displacement-noise-free interferometers, which can improve their shot-noise-limited sensitivity at low frequencies, to a factor of (f L/c)^(-1) of the shot-noise-limited sensitivity of conventional configurations.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, a proceeding for the Spanish Relativity Meeting ERE 200

Hot isostatic pressing of silicon nitride Sisub3n4 containing zircon, or zirconia and silica

A hydrothermal synthesis apparatus with a 10 KB cylinder was used to obtain a sintered body of silicon nitride. The sintering auxiliary agents used were zircon (ZrSiO4) and a mixture of zirconia (ZrO2) and silica (SiO2). Experiments were conducted with the amounts of ZrSi04 or ArO2 and SiO2 varying over a wide range and the results compared to discover the quantity of additive which produced sintering in silicon nitride by the hot pressing method

Development of a control scheme of homodyne detection for extracting ponderomotive squeezing from a Michelson interferometer

We developed a control scheme of homodyne detection. To operate the homodyne detector as easy as possible, a simple Michelson interferometer is used. Here a motivation that the control scheme of the homodyne detection is developed is for our future experiment of extracting the ponderomotively squeezed vacuum fluctuations. To obtain the best signalto- noise ratio using the homodyne detection, the homodyne phase should be optimized. The optimization of the homodyne phase is performed by changing a phase of a local oscillator for the homodyne detection from a point at which a signal is maximized. In fact, in this experiment, using the developed control scheme, we locked the Michelson interferometer with the homodyne detector and changed the phase of the local oscillator for the homodyne detection. Then, we measured signals quantity changed by changing the phase of the local oscillator for the homodyne detection. Here we used the output from the homodyne detection as the signal

Downselect of the signal extraction scheme for LCGT

Large Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope (LCGT) is the future Japanese gravitational-wave detector. It will employ the broadband resonant sideband extraction (RSE) as its optical configuration. We compared four signal extraction schemes that have been proposed so as to downselect one of them as the scheme for LCGT. The selected scheme uses the phase and amplitude modulation sidebands: the phase modulation sidebands transmitting to the antisymmetric port (AP) and the amplitude modulation sidebands reffected to the symmetric port (SP) by the functions of the Michelson asymmetry. Using these sidebands, a new technique called 'delocation' is applicable. One advantage is that the control signals of the undesired signals do not appear at the AP, where the differential signals appear

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

The third generation of gravitational wave observatories and their science reach

Large gravitational wave interferometric detectors, like Virgo and LIGO, demonstrated the capability to reach their design sensitivity, but to transform these machines into an effective observational instrument for gravitational wave astronomy a large improvement in sensitivity is required. Advanced detectors in the near future and third-generation observatories in more than one decade will open the possibility to perform gravitational wave astronomical observations from the Earth. An overview of the possible science reaches and the technological progress needed to realize a third-generation observatory are discussed in this paper. The status of the project Einstein Telescope (ET), a design study of a third-generation gravitational wave observatory, will be reported

Prospects for improving the sensitivity of KAGRA gravitational wave detector

KAGRA is a new gravitational wave detector which aims to begin joint observation with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo from late 2019. Here, we present KAGRA's possible upgrade plans to improve the sensitivity in the decade ahead. Unlike other state-of-the-art detectors, KAGRA requires different investigations for the upgrade since it is the only detector which employs cryogenic cooling of the test mass mirrors. In this paper, investigations on the upgrade plans which can be realized by changing the input laser power, increasing the mirror mass, and injecting frequency dependent squeezed vacuum are presented. We show how each upgrade affects to the detector frequency bands and also discuss impacts on gravitational-wave science. We then propose an effective progression of upgrades based on technical feasibility and scientific scenarios

Cryogenic and room temperature strength of sapphire jointed by hydroxide-catalysis bonding

Hydroxide-catalysis bonding is a precision technique used for jointing components in opto-mechanical systems and has been implemented in the construction of quasi-monolithic silica suspensions in gravitational wave detectors. Future detectors are likely to operate at cryogenic temperatures which will lead to a change in test mass and suspension material. One candidate material is mono-crystalline sapphire. Here results are presented showing the influence of various bonding solutions on the strength of the hydroxide-catalysis bonds formed between sapphire samples, measured both at room temperature and at 77 K, and it is demonstrated that sodium silicate solution is the most promising in terms of strength, producing bonds with a mean strength of 63 MPa. In addition the results show that the strengths of bonds were undiminished when tested at cryogenic temperatures