Detection of Gravitational Waves: Interferometry, Devices, Materials, and Analysis for LIGO

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Research and development for LIGO will be carried out in three main areas. First, the detailed design for the input optics of advanced LIGO will be developed, including extensive high-power testing of critical optical components such as modulators, Faraday isolators, and other transmissive optics. Some of this work will take place at the LIGO Livingston Laboratory. Methods for passive compensation of thermal lensing in these devices will be exploited, and devices constructed. Second, interferometer configurations will be studied. In collaboration with the University of Glasgow, a suspended, signal-recycled interferometer will be used as a testbed for the advanced LIGO interferometer. In addition the use of gratings as dispersive elements in optical cavities will be investigated. Third, data analysis and detector characterization algorithms will continue to be developed, in particular cross-correlation techniques for stochastic gravitational wave searches, wavelet-based algorithms for ``burst-like'' signal searches, continuing development of line-removal algorithms, and correlated noise studies. Students associated with LIGO may become involved with sophisticated methods for extraction of signals from noise, computational schemes for manipulation of huge data sets, sophisticated techniques for control and stabilization of laser wavelength and beam quality, complex mechanicalengineering, advanced ultra high vacuum techniques, and many more, depending on individual interests. Moreover, the nature of the project makes these experiences available to undergraduate students as well as to graduate and postdoctoral students. Graduate students and postdoctoralstudents in the UF LIGO group are working in areas of high demand in the outside technical community. Finally, the research in high performance modulators, isolators, and interferometric techniques, and the advanced computational techniques being developed for LIGO have the potential to impact other areas of technology in a favorable way.