Technique - (2) Seismic isolation and vibration control for interferometric GW detectors

Type: Experimental

Description: Active/passive isolation platforms and control systems that suppress seismic and vibrational noise in km-scale interferometers.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | MIT LIGO Laboratory @ MIT
Summary:

PREFERRED. Evans leads work on frequency-dependent squeezed-light injection and low-thermal-noise optics that has pushed Advanced LIGO below the standard quantum limit across its full detection band, and he leads the US design effort for the next-generation Cosmic Explorer gravitational-wave observatory. This is squarely quantum-enhanced sensing at a fundamental-physics facility scale rather than a device-fabrication program.

Department(s)/lab(s): Applied Physics | Lantz Group @ Stanford
Summary:

Lantz designs and characterizes the active seismic isolation and suspension control systems that let LIGO's kilometer-scale interferometers reach the sensitivities needed to detect gravitational waves, working on the classical-noise-suppression side of a fundamentally quantum-limited instrument.