Investigations in Gravitational Radiation
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Strathclyde
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
Close to 40 years after the first gravitational wave detectors becoming operational, long baseline instruments using laser interferometry, LIGO (USA) and GEO 600 (Germany/UK) have now been operating together as a network for ~ 5 years, taking data at an unprecedented level of sensitivity. Four science runs have so far been completed with these new interferometric detectors. All have involved the LIGO detectors, three have involved the GEO detector and two had involvement from the smaller Japanese TAMA detector. The fifth science run of the LIGO detectors started on 4th Nov 2005 and is currently ongoing, with GEO having joined in January 2006. This run, expected to last about 18 months, will be the longest stretch of data taking to date. The Virgo detector in Italy is expected to provide data to the network in the near future. New 'upper limits' have been set on the strength of gravitational waves from a range of sources: coalescing compact binaries, pulsars, burst sources and a stochastic background of gravitational waves. Recent research is allowing us to close in on what fraction of the energy loss of the pulsar in the Crab Nebula is due to gravitational wave emission. Binary black holes are probably the best candidates for detection with some chance of seeing an event over the period of the fifth science run. The field of gravitational wave detection is moving quickly forward at present and plans are already in place for major upgrades to LIGO and Virgo (Advanced LIGO and Advanced VIRGO) and also intermediate upgrades to both detectors starting in 2009 as well as the possibility of a new 3 km detector, LCGT, in Japan. Advanced LIGO, now approved by the US National Science Board and in the President's budget for 2008, is planned to be construced over the period 2010-2014, and the IGR has a major part in this upgrade through a project grant for the provision of suspensions for Advanced LIGO based on the GEO design. GEO will operate during these intermediate upgrades working in coincidence with bar detectors such as Auriga in Padua and with whatever interferometer in LIGO is operating, and then will be upgraded to optimise sensitivity at higher frequencies (GEO HF) where signals associated with neutron star oscillations and magnetars may be expected. To see further out in the Universive and maximise the potential science return possible with gravitational wave astronomy, the IGR is working with European colleagues on plans for a design study for a new '3rd generation' gravitational wave detector. This rolling grant proposal is for observations with the GEO, LIGO and Virgo detector systems and for fundamental research towards future detectors.
Publications
Abbott B
(2009)
ERRATUM: "BEATING THE SPIN-DOWN LIMIT ON GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EMISSION FROM THE CRAB PULSAR" (2008, ApJ, 683, L45)
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts in the first year of the fifth LIGO science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for high frequency gravitational-wave bursts in the first calendar year of LIGO's fifth science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
STACKED SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM THE 2006 SGR 1900+14 STORM
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts from soft gamma repeaters.
in Physical review letters
Abbott B
(2009)
LIGO: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
in Reports on Progress in Physics
Abbott B
(2008)
Astrophysically triggered searches for gravitational waves: status and prospects
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2017)
Upper Limits on Gravitational Waves from Scorpius X-1 from a Model-based Cross-correlation Search in Advanced LIGO Data
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2009)
All-Sky LIGO Search for Periodic Gravitational Waves in the Early Fifth-Science-Run Data
in Physical Review Letters
Abbott B
(2017)
Search for Post-merger Gravitational Waves from the Remnant of the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2017)
On the Progenitor of Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2009)
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in early S5 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2017)
Estimating the Contribution of Dynamical Ejecta in the Kilonova Associated with GW170817
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2017)
Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first observing run of Advanced LIGO
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2017)
Search for continuous gravitational waves from neutron stars in globular cluster NGC 6544
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2017)
All-sky search for short gravitational-wave bursts in the first Advanced LIGO run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2010)
SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE BURSTS ASSOCIATED WITH GAMMA-RAY BURSTS USING DATA FROM LIGO SCIENCE RUN 5 AND VIRGO SCIENCE RUN 1
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational waves associated with 39 gamma-ray bursts using data from the second, third, and fourth LIGO runs
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational waves from binary inspirals in S3 and S4 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings
in Physical Review D
Abbott B.
(2008)
Implications for the origin of GRB 070201 from LIGO observations
in ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Abbott BP
(2017)
GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral.
in Physical review letters
Abbott BP
(2017)
GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2.
in Physical review letters
Abbott BP
(2017)
GW170814: A Three-Detector Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Coalescence.
in Physical review letters
Abbott BP
(2017)
Upper Limits on the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background from Advanced LIGO's First Observing Run.
in Physical review letters
Albert A
(2017)
Search for High-energy Neutrinos from Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817 with ANTARES, IceCube, and the Pierre Auger Observatory
in The Astrophysical Journal
Albert A
(2017)
Search for high-energy neutrinos from gravitational wave event GW151226 and candidate LVT151012 with ANTARES and IceCube
in Physical Review D
Amelino-Camelia G
(2008)
GAUGE: the GrAnd Unification and Gravity Explorer
in Experimental Astronomy
Aston S
(2012)
Update on quadruple suspension design for Advanced LIGO
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Baggio L
(2008)
A joint search for gravitational wave bursts with AURIGA and LIGO
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Bassiri R
(2011)
Probing the atomic structure of amorphous Ta2O5 coatings
in Applied Physics Letters
Blair C
(2017)
First Demonstration of Electrostatic Damping of Parametric Instability at Advanced LIGO.
in Physical review letters
Carbone L
(2012)
Sensors and actuators for the Advanced LIGO mirror suspensions
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Evans P
(2012)
SWIFT FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATIONS OF CANDIDATE GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE TRANSIENT EVENTS
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
LIGO Scientific Collaboration & Virgo Collaboration
(2009)
An upper limit on the stochastic gravitational-wave background of cosmological origin.
in Nature
LIGO Scientific Collaboration And The Virgo Collaboration
(2017)
A gravitational-wave standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant.
in Nature
Lockerbie B
(2013)
ECONOMIC EXPECTATIONS AND ELECTION OUTCOMES
in PS: Political Science & Politics
Lockerbie N
(2014)
A 'Violin-Mode' shadow sensor for interferometric gravitational wave detectors
in Measurement Science and Technology
Lockerbie N
(2014)
A source of illumination for low-noise 'Violin-Mode' shadow sensors, intended for use in interferometric gravitational wave detectors
in Measurement Science and Technology
Lockerbie N
(2014)
The location of subterranean voids using tensor gravity gradiometry
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Lockerbie N
(2011)
First results from the 'Violin-Mode' tests on an advanced LIGO suspension at MIT
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Lockerbie N
(2014)
A displacement-doubling prism
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Lockerbie NA
(2014)
Quasi-static displacement calibration system for a "Violin-Mode" shadow-sensor intended for Gravitational Wave detector suspensions.
in The Review of scientific instruments
Lockerbie NA
(2014)
A low-noise transimpedance amplifier for the detection of "Violin-Mode" resonances in Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory suspensions.
in The Review of scientific instruments
Lockerbie NA
(2016)
Load-cell based characterization system for a "Violin-Mode" shadow-sensor in advanced LIGO suspensions.
in The Review of scientific instruments
Lockerbie NA
(2016)
A step-wise steerable source of illumination for low-noise "Violin-Mode" shadow sensors, intended for use in interferometric gravitational wave detectors.
in The Review of scientific instruments
Lockerbie Nicholas
(2012)
Simple anticipator circuit improves on earlier idea
in EDN
Martynov D
(2017)
Quantum correlation measurements in interferometric gravitational-wave detectors
in Physical Review A
Description | The detection of Gravitational Waves. |
Exploitation Route | The construction of new gravitational wave observatories. |
Sectors | Construction |
URL | http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102 |
Description | Gravitational Waves have been detected. The University of Strathclyde produced 3 videos on the detection of Gravitational Waves. |
First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
Description | Rolling grant |
Amount | £271,916 (GBP) |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2010 |
End | 09/2015 |
Description | Investigations in Gravitational Radiation |
Organisation | University of Glasgow |
Department | Institute for Gravitational Research |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This collaboration allowed the development at Strathclyde of ultra-low noise Electroststic Drivers, and their subsequent construction and testing, for the Advanced LIGO project. |
Collaborator Contribution | Assistance with making contacts with the US side of the LIGO project, specifically with collaborators at MIT and Caltech. |
Impact | Eight ultra-low noise Elecrostatic Drivers have been delivered to the IGR. |
Start Year | 2008 |