Stanford Program in Support of LIGO - Seismic Isolation and Controls

斯坦福大学的团队致力于提高NSF的激光干涉引力波观测站（LIGO）的性能和可靠性，通过开发技术和技术来提高光学器件的隔离度，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和降低噪音。它还支持通过开发先进的控制技术来更好地集成隔离和悬挂子系统来降低悬挂光学系统的噪声的研究。这笔赠款资助的改进技术和控制计划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范围提供重大升级。该赠款支持开发几种补充方法来改进LIGO。它支持在斯坦福大学的测试设施中建造和测试地震平台干涉仪（SPI）。该SPI旨在通过干涉测量连接天文台的各种隔离系统，以显著降低频率低于1 Hz的惯性和相对运动。这些传感器现在正在实验室规模上运行，该奖项为将这些传感器在LIGO天文台的首次实施提供了支持。这种集成应该减少控制噪声，提高LIGO探测器的鲁棒性。从长远来看，这笔赠款支持新的“重型悬挂”的设计工作，用于LIGO的升级，称为A#（遵循A+，现在由LIGO科学合作组织开发）。通过将主镜的质量从40公斤增加到100公斤，并提高悬挂系统的可控性，这一升级应使探测器能够一直到达10赫兹的基本噪声源。这一低频性能的改进将显著提高LIGO探测器的能力，使其能够看到双中子星的螺旋相位，并测量质量超过太阳100倍的黑洞合并。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.