English

Reduction of thermal fluctuations in a cryogenic laser interferometric gravitational wave detector

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2015-06-04 v1 Instrumentation and Detectors

Abstract

The thermal fluctuation of mirror surfaces is the fundamental limitation for interferometric gravitational wave (GW) detectors. Here, we experimentally demonstrate for the first time a reduction in a mirror's thermal fluctuation in a GW detector with sapphire mirrors from the Cryogenic Laser Interferometer Observatory at 17\,K and 18\,K. The detector sensitivity, which was limited by the mirror's thermal fluctuation at room temperature, was improved in the frequency range of 90\,Hz to 240\,Hz by cooling the mirrors. The improved sensitivity reached a maximum of 2.2×1019m/Hz2.2 \times 10^{-19}\,\textrm{m}/\sqrt{\textrm{Hz}} at 165\,Hz.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1202.3558,
  title  = {Reduction of thermal fluctuations in a cryogenic laser interferometric gravitational wave detector},
  author = {Takashi Uchiyama and Shinji Miyoki and Souichi Telada and Kazuhiro Yamamoto and Masatake Ohashi and Kazuhiro Agatsuma and Koji Arai and Masa-Katsu Fujimoto and Tomiyoshi Haruyama and Seiji Kawamura and Osamu Miyakawa and Naoko Ohishi and Takanori Saito and Takakazu Shintomi and Toshikazu Suzuki and Ryutaro Takahashi and Daisuke Tatsumi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.3558},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, 5 pages, 2 figures