LIGO - A LOOK BEHIND ATTOMETER (10~(-18) m) SENSITIVITY AND BEYOND

摘要

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), consisting of three interferometers at the two LIGO observatory sites (Livingston, LA and Hanford, WA) is operated by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) The LSC currently consists of approximately 760 members from various institutions worldwide. Each LIGO detector is a power-recycled Michelson Interferometer with Fabry-Perot cavities in the 4 km long arms. We discuss the operation of the LIGO interferometers, and the techniques that were used to reach a sensitivity of better than 10~(-18) m/Hz~(-1/2) for signals around 100 Hz. In the second part we discuss how the next generation Advanded LIGO (aLIGO) will achieve even greater sensitivity.