Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Angular Trapping Of A Mirror Using Radiation Pressure, David Bruce Kelley

Dissertations - ALL

Alignment control in gravitational-wave detectors has consistently proven to be a

dicult problem due to the stringent noise contamination requirement for the gravitational

wave readout and the radiation-pressure induced angular instability in Fabry-

Perot cavities (Sidles-Sigg instability). In this thesis, I present optical springs as a

tool to damp the motion of a mirror. I discuss the design and implementation of a single

degree-of-freedom optical spring system and the importance of the photothermal

eect in properly predicting optical spring behavior.

I also present the development and implementation of an angular control scheme,

attempting to damp two degrees of freedom with …

The Impact Of Terrestrial Noise On The Detectability And Reconstruction Of Gravitational Wave Signals From Core-Collapse Supernovae, Jessica Mciver

Doctoral Dissertations

Among of the wide range of potentially interesting astrophysical sources for gravitational wave detectors Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo are galactic core-collapse supernovae. Although detectable core-collapse supernovae have a low expected rate (a few per century, or less) these signals would yield a wealth of new physics. Of particular interest is the insight into the explosion mechanism driving core-collapse supernovae that can be gleaned from the reconstructed gravitational wave signal. A well-reconstructed waveform will allow us to assess the likelihood of different explosion models, perform model selection, and potentially map unexpected features to new physics. This dissertation presents a series …

Gravitational Wave Astrophysics: Instrumentation, Detector Characterization, And A Search For Gravitational Signals From Gamma-Ray Bursts, Daniel Hoak

Doctoral Dissertations

In the coming years, the second generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors are widely expected to observe the gravitational radiation emitted by compact, energetic events in the nearby universe. The field of gravitational wave astrophysics has grown into a large international endeavor with a global network of kilometer-scale observatories. The work presented in this thesis spans the field, from optical metrology, to instrument commissioning, to detector characterization and data analysis. The principal results are a method for the precise characterization of optical cavities, the commissioning of the advanced LIGO Output Mode Cleaner at the Hanford observatory, and a search for …

Gravitons To Photons--Attenuation Of Gravitational Waves, Preston Jones, Douglas Singleton

Publications

In this essay, we examine the response of an Unruh–DeWitt (UD) detector (a quantum two-level system) to a gravitational wave background. The spectrum of the UD detector is of the same form as some scattering processes or three body decays such as muon-electron scattering or muon decay. Based on this similarity, we propose that the UD detector response implies a “decay” or attenuation of gravitons, G, into photons, γ, via G+G→γ+γ or G→γ+γ+G. Over large distances such a decay/attenuation may have consequences in regard to the detection of gravitational waves.

Searches For Continuous Gravitational Waves From Nine Young Supernova Remnants, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We describe directed searches for continuous gravitational waves (GWs) in data from the sixth Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) science data run. The targets were nine young supernova remnants not associated with pulsars; eight of the remnants are associated with non-pulsing suspected neutron stars. One target's parameters are uncertain enough to warrant two searches, for a total of 10. Each search covered a broad band of frequencies and first and second frequency derivatives for a fixed sky direction. The searches coherently integrated data from the two LIGO interferometers over time spans from 5.3-25.3 days using the matched-filtering -statistic. We found …

Superconducting Antenna Concept For Gravitational Waves, Armen Gulian, J Foreman, Vahan Nikoghosyan, Shmuel Nussinov, Louis Sica, Jeff Tollaksen

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The most advanced contemporary efforts and concepts for registering gravitational waves are focused on measuring tiny deviations in large arm (kilometers in case of LIGO and thousands of kilometers in case of LISA) interferometers via photons. In this report we discuss a concept for the detection of gravitational waves using an antenna comprised of superconducting electrons (Cooper pairs) moving in an ionic lattice. The major challenge in this approach is that the tidal action of the gravitational waves is extremely weak compared with electromagnetic forces. Any motion caused by gravitational waves, which violates charge neutrality, will be impeded by Coulomb …

Double Compact Objects. Iii. Gravitational-Wave Detection Rates, Michal Dominik, Emanuele Berti, Richard O'Shaughnessy, Ilya Mandel, Krzysztof Belczynski, Christopher Fryer, Daniel E. Holz, Tomasz Bulik, Francesco Pannarale

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The unprecedented range of second-generation gravitational-wave (GW) observatories calls for refining the predictions of potential sources and detection rates. The coalescence of double compact objects (DCOs)—i.e., neutron star–neutron star (NS–NS), black hole–neutron star (BH–NS), and black hole–black hole (BH–BH) binary systems—is the most promising source of GWs for these detectors. We compute detection rates of coalescing DCOs in second-generation GW detectors using the latest models for their cosmological evolution, and implementing inspiral-merger-ringdown gravitational waveform models in our signal-to-noise ratio calculations. We find that (1) the inclusion of the merger/ringdown portion of the signal does not significantly affect rates for NS–NS …

Steps Towards A Nonlinear Cauchy-Characteristic Code Patching, Maria Babiuc-Hamilton

Physics Faculty Research

Cauchy-characteristic extractions (CCE) avoids the errors due to extraction at finite worldtube. The Cauchy and the characteristic approaches have complementary strengths and weaknesses. Unification of the two methods is a promising way of combining the strengths of both formalisms.

Gravitational Waves: A New Window Into The Cosmos, Jeffrey S. Hazboun

Jeffrey Hazboun

No abstract provided.

Advanced Ligo, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The Advanced LIGO gravitational wave detectors are second-generation instruments designed and built for the two LIGO observatories in Hanford, WA and Livingston, LA, USA. The two instruments are identical in design, and are specialized versions of a Michelson interferometer with 4 km long arms. As in Initial LIGO, Fabry-Perot cavities are used in the arms to increase the interaction time with a gravitational wave, and power recycling is used to increase the effective laser power. Signal recycling has been added in Advanced LIGO to improve the frequency response. In the most sensitive frequency region around 100 Hz, the design strain …

Gravitational-Wave Mediated Preheating, Stephon Alexander, Sam Cormack, Antonino Marcianò, Nicolás Yunes

Dartmouth Scholarship

We propose a new preheating mechanism through the coupling of the gravitational field to both the inflaton and matter fields, without direct inflaton–matter couplings. The inflaton transfers power to the matter fields through interactions with gravitational waves, which are exponentially enhanced due to an inflation–graviton coupling. One such coupling is the product of the inflaton to the Pontryagin density, as in dynamical Chern–Simons gravity. The energy scales involved are constrained by requiring that preheating happens fast during matter domination.

Gravitational & Electromagnetic Waves On The Null Cone, Maria Babiuc-Hamilton

Physics Faculty Research

Bondi (1962) proved mathematically the existence of gravitational waves at null infinity. He found an exact solution of Einstein equations. Within this metric, he calculated the loss of mass due to the emission of gravitational waves. The mas of a system is constant if and only if there is no news. If there is news, the mass decreases as long as there are news.