Proposed gravitational wave observatory based on solid elastic spheres

Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory

Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory

We propose a method for in situ measurement of the length of kilometer size Fabry-Perot cavities in laser gravitational wave detectors. The method is based on the vernier, which occurs naturally when the laser incident on the cavity has a sideband. By changing the length of the cavity over several wavelengths we obtain a set of carrier resonances alternating with sideband resonances. From the m...

Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory

We have developed a simple and robust system based on standard UNIX tools and frame library code to transfer and merge data from multiple gravitational wave detectors distributed worldwide. The transfer and merger take place with less than 20 min delay and the output frames are available for all participants. Presently VIRGO and LIGO participate in the exchange and only environmental data is sh...

Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory

We report on a search for gravitational wave bursts using data from the first science run of the LIGO detectors. We focus on bursts with durations ranging from 4 msec to 100 msec, and with significant power in the LIGO sensitivity band of 150 to 3000 Hz. We bound the rate for such detected bursts at less than 1.6 events per day at 90% confidence level. This result is interpreted in terms of the...

GEO 600: building a gravitational wave observatory

An international network of laser-interferometric gravitational wave detectors is nearing the end of the main commissioning phase and will soon enter into an extended observational period, collecting data for a duration of order one year. This article outlines the construction, design and commissioning of the GEO 600 gravitational wave observatory. GEO 600 is a laserinterferometric gravitationa...