SUMMARY
Einstein Telescope (ET) is a proposed underground infrastructure in Europe to host future generations of gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. One of its design goals is to extend the ...observation band of terrestrial GW detectors from currently about 20 Hz down to 3 Hz. The coupling of a detector to its environment becomes stronger at lower frequencies, which makes it important to carefully analyse environmental disturbances at ET candidate sites. Seismic disturbances pose the greatest challenge since there are several important mechanisms for seismic vibrations to produce noise in ET, for example, through gravitational coupling, stray light, or through harmful constraints on the design of ET’s control system. In this paper, we present an analysis of the time-variant properties of the seismic field at the Sardinia candidate site of ET connected to anthropogenic as well as natural phenomena. We find that temporal variations of source distributions and of the noise spectra generally follow predictable trends in the form of diurnal, weekly, or seasonal cycles. Specific seismic sources were identified such as road bridges, which produce observable disturbances underground. This information can be used to adapt a detector’s seismic isolation and control system.
In this work we report the ongoing characterization of the Sos Enattos former mine (Sardinia, Italy), one of the two candidate sites for the Einstein Telescope (ET), the European third-generation ...underground interferometric detector of Gravitational Waves. The Sos Enattos site lies on a crystalline basement, made of rocks with good geomechanical properties, characterized by negligible groundwater. In addition, the site has a very low seismic background noise due to the absence of active tectonics involving Sardinia. Finally, the area has a low population density, resulting in a reduced anthropic noise even at the ground level. This location was already studied in 2012-2014 as a promising site for an underground detector. More recently, in March 2019, we deployed a new network of surface and underground seismometers at the site, that is currently monitoring the local seismic noise. Most of the energy carried by the seismic waves is due to the microseisms below 1 Hz, showing a significant correlation with the waves of the west Mediterranean sea. Above 1 Hz the seismic noise in the underground levels of the mine approaches the Peterson's low noise model. Exploiting mine blasting works into the former mine, we were also able to perform active seismic measurements to evaluate the seismic waves propagation across the area. In conclusion we also give a first assessment about the acoustic and magnetic noise in this underground site.
The Advanced Virgo monolithic fused silica suspension Aisa, D.; Aisa, S.; Campeggi, C. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
07/2016, Volume:
824
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The detection of gravitational waves is one of the most challenging prospects faced by experimental physicists. Suspension thermal noise is an important noise source at operating frequencies between ...approximately 10 and 30Hz, and represents a limit to the sensitivity of the ground based interferometric gravitational wave detectors. Its effects can be reduced by minimizing the losses and by optimizing the geometry of the suspension fiber as well as its attachment system. In this proceeding we will describe the mirrors double stage monolithic suspension system to be used in the Advanced Virgo (AdV) detector. We also present the results of the thermal noise study, performed with the help of a finite elements model, taking into account the precise geometry of the fibers attachment systems on the suspension elements. We shall demonstrate the suitability of this suspension for installation in AdV.
•Suspension system design for the test masses of the gravitational wave detectors.•Finite element model studies.•Suspension thermal noise studies.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Third-generation gravitational wave observatories will extend the lower frequency limit of the observation band toward 2 Hz, where new sources of gravitational waves, in particular intermediate-mass ...black holes (IMBH), will be detected. In this frequency region, seismic noise will play an important role, mainly through the so-called Newtonian noise, i.e., the gravity-mediated coupling between ground motion and test mass displacements. The signal lifetime of such sources in the detector is of the order of tens of seconds. In order to determine whether a candidate site to host the Einstein Telescope observatory is particularly suitable to observe such sources, it is necessary to estimate the probability distributions that, in the characteristic time scale of the signal, the sensitivity of the detector is not perturbed by Newtonian noise. In this paper, a first analysis is presented, focused on the Sos Enattos site (Sardinia, Italy), a candidate to host the Einstein Telescope. Starting from a long data set of seismic noise, this distribution is evaluated considering both the presently designed triangular ET configuration and also the classical ”L” configuration.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
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In this paper we study the behavior of the Casimir energy of a “multi-cavity” across the transition from the metallic to the superconducting phase of the constituting plates. Our analysis is ...carried out in the framework of the ARCHIMEDES experiment, aiming at measuring the interaction of the electromagnetic vacuum energy with a gravitational field. For this purpose it is foreseen to modulate the Casimir energy of a layered structure composing a multy-cavity coupled system by inducing a transition from the metallic to the superconducting phase. This implies a thorough study of the behavior of the cavity, in which normal metallic layers are alternated with superconducting layers, across the transition. Our study finds that, because of the coupling between the cavities, mainly mediated by the transverse magnetic modes of the radiation field, the variation of energy across the transition can be very large.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
► Cryogenics is one of key technologies of a third generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors as in LCGT and ET projects. ► The results reported in this paper are the basis towards ...the realization of a full cryogenic interferometer. ► The behavior of a suspension prototype is studied both for optimizing the heat extraction from the mirror and the mirror control.
Thermal noise is a limiting factor of interferometric gravitational wave detectors sensitivity in the low and intermediate frequency range. A concrete possibility for beating this limit, is represented by the development of a cryogenic last stage suspension to be integrated within a complex seismic isolation system. To this purpose a last stage payload prototype has been designed and built. It has been suspended within a dedicated cryostat with the same technique adopted for the VIRGO payload and making use of two thin wires in a cradle configuration to support a mirror made of silicon.
The cooling strategy, the thermal behaviour and the system mechanical response have been deeply studied while a measurement characterization campaign has been performed both at room temperature and at cryogenic temperature. In this paper, the preliminary results obtained together with the first cooling down of the 300
kg overall mass payload at about 25
K, are reported. This study will play a driving role in the design of the third generation gravitational wave detector.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Advanced Virgo is the project to upgrade the Virgo interferometric detector of gravitational waves, with the aim of increasing the number of observable galaxies (and thus the detection rate) by three ...orders of magnitude. The project is now in an advanced construction phase and the assembly and integration will be completed by the end of 2015. Advanced Virgo will be part of a network, alongside the two Advanced LIGO detectors in the US and GEO HF in Germany, with the goal of contributing to the early detection of gravitational waves and to opening a new window of observation on the universe. In this paper we describe the main features of the Advanced Virgo detector and outline the status of the construction.
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