The ALLEGRO Gravitational Wave Observatory

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The detection of gravitational waves will require detectors with great sensitivity that can be maintained over many years of observation. Long observing times will be needed to catch those few rare and ephemeral bursts of gravitational waves expected from a gravitational collapse.The ALLEGRO detector at Louisiana State University has the best record in the world for long time operation at its best sensitivity; it has been in continuous operation for 4 of the past 5 years, as the only U.S. member of the International Gravitational Event Collaboration (IGEC).The sensitivity of ALLEGRO will be upgraded, to roughly match the improvements underway elsewhere in the IGEC. ALLEGRO will run for extended periods of time over the next three years, until the cryogenic bar technology is fully eclipsed by full time operation of the new interferometric detectors of the LIGO project.Two unique experiments in collaboration with LIGO, enabled by the close physical proximity of the two detectors, will be performed. One is a search for burst events which uses the negligible wave travel time to good advantage, and the other is a search for a random omnipresent gravitational wave background left over from big bang.