High Precision Mechanical Tiltmeter for Advanced LIGO

为了达到在Advanced LIGO中观测引力波所需的灵敏度，需要前所未有的地震隔离水平。该奖项支持仪器和技术的发展，以改善地震振动对整体探测器性能的影响。Advanced LIGO中的主动地震隔离阶段使用位于地面和隔离平台上的地震仪来测量和减去地面运动。然而，水平地震仪不能区分地面倾斜和水平加速度。倾斜-水平耦合使反馈复杂化，并且是Advanced LIGO中地震隔离的重要噪声源。该奖项支持开发高精度惯性传感器，以独立于水平加速度测量水平倾斜。从水平地震仪通道中去除倾斜和倾斜噪声将改善高级LIGO地震隔离。我们正在开发的倾斜仪是独一无二的，没有商业化。这些仪器可能在其他科学领域有应用，例如在地球物理学中，远远超出引力波研究。该奖项不仅支持先进LIGO设备的开发，而且还有助于保持和加强我们桌面重力组与引力波探测社区的协同活动。技术开发和实验是由一个大学研究小组进行的，该研究小组具有教育本科生、研究生和博士后建造精密机械仪器的悠久传统。凭借通过项目获得的专业知识，例如开发一种独一无二的倾斜仪，我们的学生填补了学术界的职位以及工业界的高技能职位。我们集团坚定地致力于在各级开展外联活动。

Unprecedented levels of seismic isolation are required to achieve the sensitivity necessary to observe gravitational waves in Advanced LIGO. This award supports the development of instruments and techniques to ammeliorate the effect of seismic vibrations on the overall detector performance. The active seismic isolation stages in Advanced LIGO employ seismometers located on the ground and on the isolated platform to measure and subtract ground motion. However, horizontal seismometers cannot distinguish between ground tilt and horizontal acceleration. Tilt-horizontal coupling complicates the feedback and is a significant noise source for seismic isolation in Advanced LIGO. This award supports the development of a high precision inertial sensor to measure horizontal tilt independently from horizontal acceleration. Removing tilt and tilt noise from the horizontal seismometer channels will improve Advanced LIGO seismic isolation.The tiltmeters we are developing are unique and not commercially available. These instruments may have applications in other fields of science such as in geophysics, well beyond gravitational wave research. This award not only supports the development of a device for Advanced LIGO but it also serves to maintain and strengthen synergistic activities of our table-top gravity group with the gravitational wave detection community. The technical developments and experiments are carried out by a university-based research group, which has a strong tradition of educating undergraduate students, graduate students and postdocs in building precision mechanical instruments. With the expertise gained through projects, such as developing a one-of-a-kind tiltmeter, our students fill positions in academia as well as highly skilled positions in industry. Our group is strongly committed to outreach on all levels.