The ligo gravitational wave observatories

Harry, G. M.; Adhikari, R.; Ballmer, S.; Bayer, K.; Betzwieser, J.; Bochner, B.; Burgess, R.; Cadonati, L.; Chatterji, S.; Corbitt, T.; Csatorday, P.; Fritschel, P.; Goda, K.; Hefetz, Y.; Katsavounidis, E.; Lawrence, R.; Macinnis, M.; Marin, A.; Mason, K.; Mavalvala, N.; Mittleman, R.; Ottaway, D. J.; Pratt, M.; Regimbau, T.; Richman, S.; Rollins, J.; Shoemaker, D. H.; Smith, M.; Van Putten, M.; Weiss, R.; Aulbert, C.; Berukoff, S. J.; Cutler, C.; Grunewald, S.; Itoh, Y.; Krishnan, B.; Machenschalk, B.; Mohanty, S.; Mukherjee, S.; Naundorf, H.; Papa, M. A.; Schutz, B. F.; Sintes, A. M.; Williams, P. R.; Cusack, B. J.; McClelland, D. E.; Scott, S. M.; Searle, A. C.; Goßler, S.; Whiting, B. F.

The ligo gravitational wave observatories

Date

2006-01-01

Authors

Abstract

The LIGO interferometers are operating as gravitational wave observatories, with a noise level near an order of magnitude of the goal and the first scientific data recently taken. This data has been analyzed for four different categories of gravitational wave sources; millisecond bursts, inspiralling binary neutron stars, periodic waves from a known pulsar, and stochastic background. Research and development is also underway for the next generation LIGO detector, Advanced LIGO.