Enhanced sensitivity of the LIGO gravitational wave detector by using squeezed states of light
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P1200041_v19.pdf
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Author(s)
Barsotti, Lisa
Biscans, Sebastien
Bodiya, Timothy P.
Donovan, Frederick J
Dwyer, S. E.
Essick, Reed Clasey
Evans, M.
Foley, Stephany
Fritschel, Peter K.
Gras, Slawomir
Date Issued
July 2013
Journal
Nature Photonics
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Aasi, J. et al. “Enhanced Sensitivity of the LIGO Gravitational Wave Detector by Using Squeezed States of Light.” Nature Photonics 7, 8 (July 2013): 613–619 © Macmillan Publishers Limited
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Nearly a century after Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves, a global network of Earth-based gravitational wave observatories 1-4 is seeking to directly detect this faint radiation using precision laser interferometry. Photon shot noise, due to the quantum nature of light, imposes a fundamental limit on the attometre-level sensitivity of the kilometre-scale Michelson interferometers deployed for this task. Here, we inject squeezed states to improve the performance of one of the detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) beyond the quantum noise limit, most notably in the frequency region down to 150 Hz, critically important for several astrophysical sources, with no deterioration of performance observed at any frequency. With the injection of squeezed states, this LIGO detector demonstrated the best broadband sensitivity to gravitational waves ever achieved, with important implications for observing the gravitational-wave Universe with unprecedented sensitivity.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Lincoln Laboratory
LIGO (Observatory : Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/NPHOTON.2013.177
