MRI: Acquisition of Cryogenic Coating Elastic Loss Measurement Apparatus to Enhance Gravitational-Wave Observatories

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This award supports research in instrumentation for gravitational wave detectors and it addresses the priority areas of NSF's "Windows on the Universe" Big Idea. NSF's Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has firmly established a new era in astronomy - the observation of black hole and neutron star mergers is shedding new light on a broad set of questions in astrophysics, cosmology, fundamental physics, and nuclear physics. Yet the observational range of Advanced LIGO is still limited by thermal noise from the test mass optical coatings. This MRI award covers equipment for testing new, lower thermal noise mirror coatings for current and future gravitational-wave observatories. The equipment will be used by researchers in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration's Center of Coatings Research. The Center for Coatings Research, funded jointly by the NSF and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, has the specific goal to develop better coatings for gravitational-wave detectors. The equipment is also available for minority graduate students supported through the NSF's PAARE program.The award specifically funds the purchase and construction of a multi-temperature, multi-frequency cryogenic elastic loss measurement apparatus, to be installed at Syracuse University. The apparatus consists of a PT 407 Cyrostat and attached sample chamber. It is specifically designed to revolutionize testing of optical coatings materials. The apparatus permits rapid-turnaround measurement of the elastic loss of the new coating samples, which drives the thermal noise in gravitational-wave detector mirror coatings.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.