Gravitational wave detectors - broadening their horizon

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Abstract:: With the first generation of interferometric ground-based gravitational wave detectors having reached their design sensitivity to a large extend, the world-wide network is now ready to employ upgrades with the aim to reach the required instrument sensitivity that will guarantee direct detection. The initial stage of these upgrades are currently being made to the LIGO and VIRGO detectors, to form the so-called "enhanced" or "+" generation detectors. These upgrades require minor infrastructural changes and aim at a factor of 2 improvement in strain sensitivity. Simultaneous to this, R&D efforts are under way to finalise the design, development and production of more major infrastructural changes necessary for the "advanced" generation. These changes are aimed at improving the strain sensitivity by a factor of 10 over the initial instruments and to widen the frequency band, with the completion date expected to be 2015. This presentation will provide a technical overview of gravitational wave detectors, focusing on the upgrade paths of both the "enhanced" and "advanced" generations.

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LIGO Document G0900652-v2