Enhancing the QUEST experiment with a coin sized Output Mode Cleaner for improved sensitivity to Quantum Gravity signatures

自2015年秋季开始首次观测以来，Advanced LIGO和Virgo已经直接探测到了黑洞和中子星碰撞产生的引力波，从而为天文学带来了一种新的仪器。这是通过他们对微小变化的测量来实现的（在100 Hz时小于10^-19 m！）在两个相隔很远的镜子之间的距离。先进的LIGO激光干涉仪已经是世界上最精确的测量设备，但在进一步改进干涉仪以提高信噪比和引力波探测率的道路上仍然存在许多挑战。由基础物理学（如光的量子性质）和技术来源（如用于控制干涉仪无数自由度的不完美传感器）产生的噪声需要突破技术极限的巧妙解决方案。有几个可能的研究方向为一个或多个博士生。项目可能包括开发和测试新的干涉仪读出方案，设计和建造倾斜不敏感的惯性传感器以改善地震隔离，改善挤压光与干涉仪的集成，设计和原型制作新的光学布局以提高目标频率的灵敏度，为第三代干涉仪（如爱因斯坦望远镜）建模控制拓扑结构，并为使用干涉测量法的基础物理实验做出贡献。博士生将获得高精度光学实验和复杂实验系统噪声分析的技能，同时为新兴的引力波天文学领域做出贡献。

Since the start of their first observing runs starting in fall 2015, Advanced LIGO and Virgo have made direct detections of gravitational waves created by the collisions of black holes and of neutron stars, thus bringing to life a new instrument for astronomy. This is accomplished through their measurements of infinitesimal changes (less than 10^-19 m at 100 Hz!) in the distance between two largely separated mirrors. The Advanced LIGO laser interferometers are already the most precise measurement devices in the world, but there nonetheless remain many challenges along the path to further improve the interferometers in order to increase the signal-to-noise ratio and rate of gravitational wave detections. Noise resulting from fundamental physics such as the quantum nature of light and from technical sources such as the imperfect sensors used for controlling the interferometer's myriad degrees of freedom require clever solutions that push the limits of technology. There are several possible research directions for one or more PhD students. Projects could include developing and testing new interferometric readout schemes, designing and building tilt-insensitive inertial sensors for improved seismic isolation, improving the integration of squeezed light to the interferometers, designing and prototyping new optical layouts for sensitivity improvement at targeted frequencies, modeling control topologies for third generation interferometers such as the Einstein Telescope, and contributing to fundamental physics experiments using interferometry. The PhD student will gain skills in high-precision optical experiments and noise analyses of complex experimental systems, all the while contributing to the budding field of gravitational-wave astronomy.