Sensors for Low-Frequency Improvements in Advanced LIGO

该奖项将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”大创意的优先领域。引力波最近成为人类观察宇宙的一种新方式。美国国家科学基金会在路易斯安那州和华盛顿州的LIGO天文台处于天文学新前沿的前沿。该奖项将开发新的仪器，以提高LIGO天文台的鲁棒性和灵敏度。具体而言，该奖项将进一步发展新型地震传感器，精密对准技术和重力校准系统。这些技术的发展影响了广泛的切向领域，包括地震成像，绝对计量和地震预警。随着该奖项的发展和未来的观测，LIGO天文台将继续进一步了解宇宙的基本规律，探索元素的诞生地，并照亮宇宙的宇宙历史。此外，该奖项将支持本科生和研究生的教育，因为他们在世界领先的科学合作之一进行研究。该奖项将支持为LIGO引力波观测站继续开发各种新型仪器。具体而言，宽带惯性旋转传感器，重力校准系统和光学对准技术。为了在地球表面运行，LIGO天文台采用了一系列6度地震隔离平台，这些平台目前受到旋转噪声的限制。该奖项将继续开发紧凑，真空兼容的旋转传感器，达到皮科灵敏度。预计这些传感器将显著提高LIGO观测站的鲁棒性和灵敏度，特别是在20 Hz以下。为了准确解释LIGO观测到的引力波事件，天文台需要进行良好的校准。该奖项将进一步研究目前达到1%绝对精度的重力校准系统，预计未来升级后将达到0.1%的精度。最后，LIGO使用一组光学杠杆来调整天文台内的各种光学器件。这些都是已知的毛刺，不符合他们的期望性能。该奖项将支持对现有光学杠杆的改进和未来升级的研究。这三个项目都将在华盛顿大学与LIGO天文台密切合作进行。一旦仪器研制完成，观测时间表允许，将对观测站进行改进。该小组预计将在下一轮的天文台升级中做出重大贡献，这将为未来所有的LIGO观测运行提供更高的灵敏度和鲁棒性。该奖项反映了NSF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。

This award will support research in relativity and relativistic astrophysics, and it addresses the priority areas of NSF's "Windows on the Universe" Big Idea. Gravitational waves have recently become a new way that humanity can observe the Universe. The NSF's LIGO observatories in Louisiana and Washington State are on the forefront of this new frontier of astronomy. This award will develop novel instrumentation that will improve the robustness and sensitivity of the LIGO observatories. Specifically, this award will further the development of novel seismic sensors, precision alignment technologies, and gravitational calibration systems. The development of these technologies impacts a wide array of tangential fields including seismic imaging, absolute metrology, and earthquake early warning. With the improvements developed by this award and the future observations that they will allow, the LIGO observatories will continue to further the knowledge of the fundamental laws of the Universe, explore the birthplaces of the elements, and illuminate the cosmic history of the universe. Additionally, this award will support the education of both undergraduate and graduate students as they conduct research within one of the world's leading scientific collaborations. This award will support the continued development of a variety of novel instrumentation for the LIGO gravitational wave observatories. Specifically, broadband inertial rotation sensors, gravitational calibration systems, and optical alignment techniques. To operate on the surface of the Earth, the LIGO observatories employ a series of 6-degree seismic isolation platforms that are currently limited by their rotational noise. This award will continue the development of compact, vacuum compatible rotation sensors that reach picoradian sensitivity. These sensors are expected to yield significant improvements to the robustness and sensitivity of the LIGO observatories, especially below 20 Hz. To accurately interpret the gravitational wave events seen by LIGO, the observatories need to be well calibrated. This award will further the investigation of gravitational calibration systems that currently reach 1% absolute precision and are expected to reach 0.1% precision with future upgrades. Finally, LIGO employs a set of optical levers to align the various optics within the observatory. These have been known to be glitchy and do not meet their desired performance. Research into improvements to the existing optical levers and future upgrades will be supported by this award. All three of these projects will be conducted at the University of Washington in close collaboration with the LIGO observatories. The improvements to the observatories will be pursued once the instrumentation is developed and the observing schedule permits. The group expects to make significant contributions in the next round of observatory upgrades which will provide improved sensitivity and robustness for all future LIGO observing runs.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.