Opening the Gravitational-Wave Band Below 30 Hz for LIGO and Cosmic Explorer

为 LIGO 和 Cosmic Explorer 打开低于 30 Hz 的引力波频段

• 批准号: 2207942
• 负责人: Lisa Barsotti
• 金额: $ 42万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2207942&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Opening; Gravitational; Wave; Band; Below

This award supports research in relativity and relativistic astrophysics, and it addresses the priority areas of NSF's "Windows on the Universe" Big Idea. The Advanced LIGO detectors will continue to make discoveries in the upcoming years with the “A+” upgrade. The next two observing runs, O4 and O5, will culminate with the A+ detectors operating at an unprecedented sensitivity. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration is now exploring technologies that can be deployed after O5 (circa 2028) to ensure the next sensitivity leap forward. This award funds work that will improve the sensitivity of current and future gravitational-wave detectors at low frequencies. This work will enable the detection of more and higher-fidelity astrophysical events, and increase access to high-mass black-hole collisions at cosmological distances. The work supported by this award will involve mechanical engineers and physicists, with opportunities for graduate students as well as undergraduate students (via the MIT UROP program) in both of these fields.This ambitious goal can be reached by improving the detector's test mass suspension system to lower its vertical resonance frequency. This approach, coupled with heavier optic mass, can lead to a reduction of seismic, thermal and quantum radiation pressure noises. Several improvements will be considered, including: increasing the suspension length and the stress of the fibers that hold the test mass, and employing lower-noise sensors. These techniques can lead to an improved LIGO suspension system (in current facilities), and will also be applied in the next-generation gravitational-wave detector Cosmic Explorer. The proposed work will couple these two synergistic efforts by developing, together with the LIGO Laboratory, the Cosmic Explorer Project, and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, a conceptual design for an improved suspension system for LIGO and an early design concept for the Cosmic Explorer suspension.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.

该奖项支持相对论和相对论天体物理学的研究，并解决了NSF“宇宙之窗”大理念的优先领域。先进的LIGO探测器将在未来几年继续进行“A+”升级。接下来的两次观测运行，O4和O5，将以前所未有的灵敏度运行的A+探测器达到高潮。LIGO科学合作组织目前正在探索可以在O5（大约2028年）之后部署的技术，以确保下一个灵敏度飞跃。该奖项资助的工作将提高当前和未来的引力波探测器在低频的灵敏度。这项工作将能够探测到更多和更高保真的天体物理事件，并增加在宇宙学距离上进行大质量黑洞碰撞的机会。该奖项支持的工作将涉及机械工程师和物理学家，并为这两个领域的研究生和本科生（通过麻省理工学院UROP计划）提供机会。这一雄心勃勃的目标可以通过改进探测器的测试质量悬挂系统来实现，以降低其垂直共振频率。这种方法，加上更重的光学质量，可以导致减少地震，热和量子辐射压力噪声。几个改进将被考虑，包括：增加悬挂长度和保持测试质量的纤维的应力，并采用低噪声传感器。这些技术可以改进LIGO悬浮系统（在现有设施中），也将应用于下一代引力波探测器Cosmic Explorer。拟议的工作将通过与LIGO实验室、宇宙探测器项目和LIGO科学合作组织一起开发，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估，被认为值得支持。影响审查标准。