Gravitational wave detection with advanced ground based detectors

Abstract

There are great expectations for the world-wide network of gravitational wave detectors currently under construction in United States, Europe and Japan. These multi-kilometer interferometers are seeking to make the first direct detection of gravitational waves and initiate a new era in astronomy and astrophysics in which we can listen to black holes, neutron stars and other enigmatic inhabitants of the local universe. Advanced detectors will be approximately 10 times more sensitive than the initial detectors, which were operational until 2011. As the detection volume for a given source is proportional to the cube of the sensitivity, detection rates will increase by roughly a factor of one thousand; rate estimates suggest a most probable level of tens of events per year once detectors reach design sensitivity. In this paper we give a general overview of the advanced detectors which will start producing astrophysically interesting data in 2015, and we discuss prospects for beginning the observation of the gravitational wave Universe within this decade.