Bringing Advanced LIGO to Design Performance and Further Sensitivity Enhancements

Through the design and construction project "Advanced LIGO UK," the UK has succeeded in making fundamental contributions to the Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) detectors in the US by transfer of technology originally developed for GEO 600.

As a direct result, UK groups are in a position to fully exploit the rich science data that will be produced over the coming decade. There is, therefore, a unique opportunity to ensure that UK scientists maintain leadership in gravitational wave science, and that UK delivered equipment and facilities for the aLIGO detectors are fully exploited to maximise the science output. This is true both in terms of their implementation within the aLIGO baseline configuration, and when it is planned that reconfiguration or upgrading of aLIGO will be undertaken. It is envisaged that the UK equipment which has been designed to meet all long-term project goals, will remain in place even following such upgrades, and continued UK technical contributions and R&D effort will be essential to ensure that is the case.

The immediate beneficiaries include the UK astronomy community - extending far beyond just the applicant group - who will gain access to LIGO data at the time when the first gravitational wave signals are most likely to be seen. In the longer term the research will radically alter our understanding of the Universe, including information on the nature of neutron stars and black holes, and through opportunities for precision cosmology. This will benefit the widest astronomy/astrophysics community, internationally.
As cosmology and astrophysics are always forefront areas for public outreach, there will be considerable impact resulting from the discovery of gravitational waves and the burgeoning science that will inevitably result. To have a major focus for this new science in the UK should help revitalise public interest at a time when economic pressures could potentially fight against the growth of science in our community. There is no doubt that a discovery of gravitational waves would galvanise public interest at all levels from school pupils up. An improved understanding of cosmology and compact-object astrophysics, of the most impressive and even violent nature, is bound to catch the public imagination, and produce demand for creative works such as television programmes. A concrete example of direct benefit of Advanced LIGO UK to the popular culture exists in the Science Museum, London, where pre-prototype test mass and the metal structural components of an Advanced LIGO test-mass suspension, both made available by the collaboration, are on display.
The earlier Advanced LIGO UK construction project brought direct benefit to several areas of UK industry both through the placement of over £3M of contracts, but also by pushing manufacturing techniques to reach higher standards of quality and precision required for our work. Examples include: optics, precision mechanics and electronics. In some cases these companies have subsequently been able to market the resulting technology, nationally and internationally.
In summary there is a wide range of potential impact. The majority of these should start to be realised within the duration of the project (it is likely that a discovery will be made around 2015, if not before). In the later part of this decade gravitational wave science should be becoming mature, and the consequences for both science and its public understanding should have attained major proportions.