The ALLEGRO Gravitational Wave Observatory

ALLEGRO 引力波天文台

• 批准号: 0215479
• 负责人: Warren Johnson
• 金额: $ 138万
• 依托单位: Louisiana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-02-01 至 2008-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0215479&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ALLEGRO; Gravitational; Wave; Observatory

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.

引力波的探测需要探测器具有很高的灵敏度，并且可以在多年的观测中保持不变。 需要很长的观测时间才能捕捉到因引力坍缩而出现的少数罕见且短暂的引力波爆发。路易斯安那州立大学的 ALLEGRO 探测器拥有世界上在最佳灵敏度下长时间运行的最佳记录；作为国际引力事件合作组织 (IGEC) 唯一的美国成员，它在过去 5 年中连续运行了 4 年。ALLEGRO 的灵敏度将得到升级，以大致匹配 IGEC 其他地方正在进行的改进。 ALLEGRO 将在未来三年内长时间运行，直到 LIGO 项目的新型干涉探测器的全时运行使低温棒技术完全黯然失色。由于两个探测器物理上非常接近，将与 LIGO 合作进行两项独特的实验。 一种是利用可忽略的波传播时间来搜索爆发事件，另一种是搜索大爆炸遗留下来的随机无所不在的引力波背景。