Stanford Program in Support of LIGO - Seismic Isolation and Controls

斯坦福大学的研究小组致力于提高美国国家科学基金会激光干涉仪引力波天文台（LIGO）的性能和可靠性，通过开发技术和技术来改善光学隔离，减少地面运动对探测器的影响。该合同将帮助LIGO实施一种新的辅助激光传感技术，以改善地面运动隔离系统的控制并降低噪音。它还支持研究，通过开发先进的控制技术，以更好地整合隔离和悬挂子系统，以降低悬挂光学系统的噪声。由这笔拨款资助的改进技术和控制方案将有助于最大限度地提高这些一流设施的科学产出。该奖项还支持设计新的悬架，这将为现有探测器的天体物理覆盖范围提供重大升级。这笔拨款支持开发几种改进LIGO的互补方法。它支持斯坦福大学测试设施中地震平台干涉仪（SPI）的建造和测试。该SPI设计用于干涉连接天文台的各种隔离系统，以显着降低频率低于1hz的惯性和相对运动。这些传感器目前正在实验室规模上运行，该奖项为LIGO天文台首次实施这些传感器提供了支持。这种集成可以减少控制噪声，提高LIGO探测器的鲁棒性。从长远来看，这笔拨款将支持LIGO新的“重型悬挂”的设计工作，用于升级LIGO，称为a#（在LIGO科学合作组织正在开发的A+之后）。通过将主反射镜的质量从40公斤增加到100公斤，并提高悬挂系统的可控性，这一升级应该允许探测器到达基本噪声源一路下降到10赫兹。这种低频性能的改进将显著提高LIGO探测器观测双中子星的吸气相位和测量质量超过太阳100倍的黑洞合并的能力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The team at Stanford works to improve the performance and reliability of NSF's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatories (LIGO) by developing technology and techniques to improve the isolation of the optics and reduce the impact of ground motion on the detectors. This award will help LIGO implement a new auxiliary laser sensing technology to improve the control and lower the noise of the ground motion isolation systems. It also supports research to reduce the noise of the suspended optics by developing advanced control techniques to better integrate the isolation and suspension subsystems. The improved technology and control schemes funded by this grant will help maximize the scientific output of these premier facilities. This award also supports the design of new suspensions which will provide a significant upgrade to the astrophysical reach of the existing detectors.This grant supports development of several complementary approaches to improving LIGO. It supports the construction and testing of a Seismic Platform Interferometer (SPI) in the test facility at Stanford. This SPI is designed to interferometrically connect the various isolation systems at the Observatories to dramatically reduce the inertial and the relative motion at frequencies below 1 Hz. These sensors are now running at the lab scale and this award provides the support to move these into a first implementation at a LIGO observatory. This integration should reduce the control noise and improve robustness of the LIGO detectors. In the long term, this grant supports the design effort for the new “Heavy Suspension” for an upgrade for LIGO known as A# (to follow A+ which and now being developed by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration). By increasing the mass of the main mirrors from 40 kg to 100 kg and improving the controllability of the suspension system, this upgrade should allow the detectors to reach fundamental noise sources all the way down to 10 Hz. This low frequency performance improvement will significantly improve the ability of the LIGO detectors to see the inspiral phase of binary neutron stars and measure the merger of black holes which are more than 100 times the mass of our sun.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.