Institutional Sponsorship from UKRI India Office for Glasgow
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Giles Hammond (Principal Investigator) |
| Description | LIGO India report |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Building on the IUCAA - University of Glasgow (Newton-Bhabha) collaboration towards LIGO India Monday 7th and Wednesday 9th February 2022 Objective To bring together key personnel from R&D institutes and Higher Educational Institutes within the UK and India working in the field of gravitational wave astronomy. The focus was to discuss how to further collaborate and capitalise on future opportunities towards the development of LIGO India and multi-messenger astronomy. This report, prepared by University of Glasgow, provides an overview of the key outcomes from the two-day meeting. A list of the participants can be found in Annex 1. First day: participants: 30 people 1. Overview on related activities to LIGO India. "Newton Bhabha activities 2017-2021": Giles Hammond: A detailed description and summary of the Newton-Bhabha programme was provided, including the overarching aim of the grant and some of the key highlights. This included skills training done via the development of hardware such as a stabilised laser pre-mode cleaner (PMC), distance learning and hackathons, and student/staff exchanges to both India and the UK. Other activities discussed included the various workshops held both in person and online aimed at the students from undergraduate level to Masters/PhD level. For example, the "Build-a-detector workshop" gave students the skills to design (on paper) their own gravitational wave (GW) detector. The entrepreneurial activities of the grant were also highlighted, and examples of current gravitational wave spinoffs were mentioned. Finally, a roadmap for India-UK future relations was discussed. 2. Indian academic institutes in LIGO India Following the overview talk, a series of presentations were provided by academic institutes within India. The session began with Prof. Somak Raychaudhury and Prof. Sukanta Bose from IUCAA who gave a joint talk on the current status of LIGO India as well as the main activities ongoing at IUCAA. IUCAA: Sukanta Bose and Somak Raychaudhury. An overview was given on the LIGO India pre-project and IUCAA's role in executing crucial activities to ensure the operation of LIGO India, such as Human Resource Development (HRD), computing and Education & Public Outreach (EPO). It was noted that IUCAA is currently supporting site activities via training of commissioners and operators as well as working to coordinate technological development, data analysis and computing, and education and public outreach. There was also an overview of the training modules for LIGO India commissioning which are being developed at IUCAA, which include seismic isolation and suspension damping. A broader overview of the R&D projects being undertaken by academic institutes in India was also given. IUCAA also gave an insight into the current and longer-term plans at the institute, which include Current • HRD, computing and EPO • Preparing to run the observatory (Operations and Management) once the installation and commissioning has bene completed. • Training commissioners and operators in collaboration with the LIGO lab in the US and RRCAT / IPR. • Coordinating technology development and capacity building research across the LIGO India institutions. • Data and computing • EPO Next 5 years: • Academic training in GW, both experimental and theory • Infrastructure development for GW physics across India • Technology development for A+ within LIGO India • R&D for next generation detectors • EPO work TIFR Hyderabad: Karthik Raman Prof. Karthik V. Raman gave an overview talk on the coating development and mechanical loss measurement at TIFR Hyderabad, describing the Q measurement set up and the coating system where both academics and PhD students are actively working. TIFR have developed a variety of different coatings substrates with University of Strathclyde, which are currently being tested in the Q measurement system. The group also has a cluster of vacuum systems which allows them to use different kinds of coating material and different deposition techniques (e.g., MBE/Sputtering). The group has also been developing in-house cryogenics, in particular working towards a cryogenic cryostat for low temperature characterisation of coatings. More closely related to LIGO India, they have been working with the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. An Indian PhD student visited the University of Strathclyde where he learnt about mechanical loss measurements and helped build a Q measurement system, which was later shipped to TIFR. Two samples were received from RRCAT of monocrystalline AlGaAs DBR (Distributed Bragg Reflector) mirrors, to be measured in the mechanical loss system. At TIFR there is also a vacuum chamber with an ECR gun which now allows four targets to be used on a radial turret. Plans for expanding the coating centre at TIFR Hyderabad are in place which will allow the development of a coating centre on campus. This will enable R&D in coatings for LIGO India, as well as helping facilitate partnerships with industry and future start-ups, and research and development for non-LIGO activities. IISER Pune: Umakant Rapol An overview of the activities at the CGPA (Centre for Gravitational Physics & Astronomy) lab in IISER was given, identifying the members involved in the work both in India and in the UK. One of the key highlights given was the synergy between gravitational wave activities and quantum technologies. Looking to the future, Prof. Rapol described that many technologies for LIGO India have an overlap in quantum technologies. In particular, there will be a national mission that will open in quantum technologies and this will be a great opportunity for IISER Pune. Two Quantum technology initiatives are currently ongoing in ISSER Pune, the quantum enabled science and technology (QuEST) and the Technology Innovation Hub in Quantum technologies (TIH-HQ) where many technologies are being developed such as quantum computing and simulations, quantum clocks and quantum metrology. Plans for the CGPA lab are ongoing, with the following experimental setups proposed: • Michelson interferometry with fixed and suspended mirrors in vacuum • Laser stabilisation and optical resonator experiments • Noise analysis • Vacuum technology • PMC cavity construction • Replicating a Q-measurement system similar to the one at TIFR • Development of a broadband squeezer. IIT Madras: Roselyn Jose. This talk focussed on control system activities for LIGO. Research work on the development of modern control techniques was discussed, such as reinforcement learning based control for mitigating noise present at LIGO, specifically Newtonian and Seismic noise. Broadband Newtonian noise cancellation and local damping suspension control have been two of the main areas currently being studied at IIT Madras. Suresh Doravari pointed out that IUCAA has a suspension training model, and that they are in discussion with IIT Madras for joint use of facilities/analysis techniques. A collaboration would be useful to consider here. 3. Development of R&D towards LIGO India DCSEM (Directorate of Construction, Services and Estate Management) /IPR (Institute for Plasma Research) /RRCAT (Raja Ramannan Centre for Advanced Technologies) related activities in LIGO India: Dr Sendhil Raja (RRCAT) LIGO India is a Mega science project, and the leading institutes are DCSEM, RRCAT, IPR, with IUCAA (on the academic side). DCSEM handles land acquisition and building infrastructure, and they have been very proactive in acquiring the site for LIGO India. IPR focuses on plasma research, plasma technology and high and ultra-high vacuum. They are responsible for the vacuum system in LIGO India. RRCAT - laser centre for light, is focusing on LIGO India hardware development such as suspensions and setting up a 10 m prototype. Dr Raja gave an overview of LIGO India and its role in the international GW network. It is important to have the largest possible baseline to have comparable sensitivity to the LIGO US detectors, and LIGO India will allow better sky-localisation of gravitational wave sources by triangulation. GW detector activity in RRCAT - there was a proposal in 1990 to build a 100m prototype put forward but unfortunately this wasn't funded. Similarly in 1995, a collaboration with ACIGA was made to participate to build a km GW detector in Perth but again this wasn't funded. Finally in 2009, IndiGO, the India consortium was funded and RRCAT was invited to join. An MOU was signed in 2016 with DAE on the funding side in India and the NSF in the USA in the presence of the Honourable prime minister of India. Currently the following activities have been undertaken; • In 2016 the approval for the project was given • Following this a joint oversight group was set up between DAE (DST) and NSF. • Currently the site has been completely acquired, the environmental clearance for the project has been received by the government and other required surveys such as the soil sampling have been completed. A weather and seismic station is established for continuous data acquisition and the site office building is currently under construction (almost completed) at the LIGO-India Observatory site. Other key points that were noted: • Vacuum system development: cryo pumps are slightly delayed. • An outgassing measurement has been setup for steel coupons (for qualifying the steel). • HAM and BSC chambers have been fabricated and delivered to RRCAT for detector installation training purposes. • RRCAT working on a 10m protype testing and training facility. UHV vacuum envelope fabrication is currently underway with the aim of a summer completion. • RRCAT is also working on control training for the 10 m. In the near future: • Vacuum system components for LIGO India. • Four pass laser pre-amplifier. • Fibre pulling set ups for fused silica suspensions. • Ear tab hydroxide-catalysis bonding for optics (on going). • Core optics development. • Coating developing is limited in India especially for the low scatter optics. • Also looking ahead towards A+ upgrades and Voyager cryogenic technology. • Project dragonfly which is an array of 0.5 m fixed telescopes along two arms of the LIGO-India detector. The system will allow field of view stitching to generate a composite high-resolution picture for kilonova detection. Second day (25 participants) 4. STFC facilities and potential collaborations Central Laser Facility: John Collier Dr Collier provided a UK focus on high power laser development and work towards EPIC. There has been a long-standing relationship / decade of scientific collaboration between India and the UK. This started with a Newton-Bhabha award with a number of workshops in the UK and India exploring the potential for laser-driven sources for therapy, diagnosis and biomedical imaging. This led to a pilot program (funded) between the Central Laser facility (CLF) and TIFR in 2017 for a joint development of control systems for next generation high power lasers. An opportunity arose to apply for funding for a 5-year program (£4.03M) between UK and India. The plan was to recruit a set of people (20-25) based in Hyderabad (scientist/engineers) in 2019. Training was delayed due to COVID, but this has now stabilised. EPIC (Extreme Photonics Innovation Centre) aims to increase the repetition of the laser from tens of minutes to ten times a second to increase the flux over a given period. The key areas that EPIC will be working on include: • High repetition rate targeting/plasma mirrors/target positioning systems. • High repetition rate particle and radiation detectors • Control system solutions for laser-driven accelerators. • Design and manufacture of key opto-mechanics, vacuum systems and EMP resistant drive systems. • High volume data analysis packages including CT. The EPIC model could be suitable for future collaborations in LIGO India as it was a quick way to get established. There's a clear bilateral benefit. The collaboration has also expanded beyond the initial partners. In terms of LIGO-India and CLF/EPIC collaboration, there could be potential interest in precision opto-mechanics, automated control systems, vacuum infrastructure, and data management. There are also broader high power laser activities ongoing including; EPAC: The UK has invested in a brand-new centre to support high power laser applications called EPAC (Extreme Photonics Application centre). This is an £82M investment for a centre for development and applications for laser driven accelerators and sources in academia, industry etc. SCAPA: There is another facility called SCAPA at the University of Strathclyde which has similar plans for application of high-power lasers towards imaging and plasma driven accelerators. There will be another facility in TIFR Hyderabad, TRISHUL, in a few years' time as recently announced by the DAE chairman. ATC: Ewan Fitzsimons Dr Fitzsimons gave an overview of the UKATC (UK Astronomy Technology centre), the UK's national laboratory for astronomical instrumentation, including the Higgs Centre for innovations as well as the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh Visitor centre. UKATC is part of STFC, which funds astronomy facilities and R&D. There are about 100 staff members at UKATC across all aspects of astronomy instrumentation. 80% of the programme at UKATC is astronomy related, with 20% non-astronomy projects such as Earth observation and healthcare. UKTAC has been involved in the James Webb telescope, ALMA, VLT and ELT as well as LISA. Some of the instrumentation programs currently running at UKATC include: • VLT Moons: UK-led 3rd generation instrument for ESO's VLT with UKATC leading on optics, structure, cryogenics, fibres, software and more. The focal plane array is also being integrated at UKTAC. • ELT: HARMONI: UK-led the first-light of the ELT instrument. UKATC is leading and contributing with project management, system engineering, overall instrument assembly, integration and testing. Optical and mechanical design includes cryostat design, static structure analysis and adaptive optics. UKATC is also involved in the development of 4 out of 5 of the instruments for ELT (with leadership on HARMONI). UKATC is also working on; SKAO - Observatory monitoring & control for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), leading in operator controls and observer tools. VLT Cubes - UKATC is leading and contributing to the optical design, the detector sub-systems and the science case for getting the mission off the ground. LISA - UKATC leads the UK contribution to the LISA mission (in partnership with the University of Glasgow) for the design, development, integration and testing of the optical bench interferometer with Phase A (preliminary phase) just completed and Phase B starting in April 2022. 5. Coating/laser development in India (TIFR) Overview of the Extreme Photonics Innovation Centre (EPIC) project: M. Krishnamurthy (TIFR) EPIC is the Extreme Photonics Innovation Centre, a centre at the Petawatt and beyond. The science involved in the innovation centre is intense laser driven science, which is non-intuitive physics and requires the combination of optics, plasma physics, nuclear astronomy and particle physics. TIFR has been doing this kind of science for the last ~14 years, initially building small lasers that allowed collaboration with laboratories in Bombay. The group also has an established collaboration with IPR, IIT in Hyderabad, IIT Madras, IIT Joghupur and Hyderabad central University. The kind of science done in TIFR is slightly smaller than that done in the UK (CLF). However, TIFR have a unique set up/ environment to study all the different states of matter in the same laboratory using the same laser (atoms/molecules, micro droplets, solid slabs, nano clusters) Advanced light sources are large national facilities such as the Diamond synchrotron at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK) and SACLA XFEL in Japan. A key issue is whether high power systems can be made much more compact. Laser driven sources could provide an alternative to making these compact and usable. Commercial microfocus based scanners tend to be limited by electron beam size as well as the X-ray flux |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/physics/research/groups/igr/ligo_india/ |