UK Involvement in the Operation of Advanced LIGO

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Through the design and construction project 'Advanced LIGO UK,' the UK has succeeded in making fundamental contributions to the Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) detectors in the US by transfer of technology originally developed for GEO 600. As a direct result, UK groups are in a position to fully exploit the rich science data that will be produced over the coming decade. There is, therefore, a unique opportunity to ensure that UK scientists maintain leadership in gravitational wave science, by providing the support and infrastructure necessary for the UK to maintain full involvement in the operation of the aLIGO detectors and so to remain active partners in the user-community group, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), through which data rights are earned and distributed. Of equal importance is the need to ensure that UK delivered equipment and facilities for the aLIGO detectors are fully exploited to maximise the science output. This is true both in terms of their implementation within aLIGO, and later when it is planned that reconfiguration or upgrading of aLIGO will be undertaken. It is envisaged that the UK equipment which has been designed to meet all long-term project goals, will remain in place even following such upgrades, and continued UK technical support will help to ensure that is the case. The UK membership of the LSC is considerable, and we have been able to leverage data access and science return for a relatively small investment in the total hardware investment (at the few percent level). Further we are in a position to maintain involvement at the highest level for very modest additional investment, as set out in detail in this proposal.