GEO600

GEO600 gravitational wave detector is based on a Michelson interferometer with 600 m side length in Ruthe near Hanover. GEO600 is part of the international consisting of five instruments LIGO facility.

History

GEO600 was established in 1995 and is from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam and Hannover together with the Leibniz University of Hannover, the University of Glasgow, Cardiff University, the University of Birmingham and the University of the Balearic Islands operated in Mallorca. The budget amounts to about 10 million euros (one-tenth of comparable projects).

After test runs in the summer of 2002 and the end of 2003, the regular operation in 2005 /06 was recorded. So far, no gravitational waves could be detected.

Leader of the project are Karsten Danzmann, James Hough, Bernard Schutz (the latter for the theory ).

Operation

GEO600 consists of nine container huts with ultra-modern laser technology and two each 600 meters long, covered with corrugated iron trenches, a filter component and a strong laser. The latter sends an approximately three -watt light beam via a beam splitter through an angle of 93 degrees disposed tubes. At the end of the rays are reflected, meet at the beam splitter together and are then detected on the photodiode of the interferometer. The time differences of the light from the two tubes provide information on the compressions of the space-time information. The measurements must be very accurate in order to find the tiny fluctuations in space-time can.

The major challenges are the many sources of interference that would obscure a signal off. These include, for example, air pressure and temperature fluctuations, as well as ground vibrations of all kinds for this purpose ( about 80 GB per day) were existing technologies such as laser stabilization, low-absorption optics, control systems, vibration damping and data processing have changed. With additional levels of both laser light as well as signal are each multiply constructively superimposed with itself and amplified ( Dual recycling). The light output of the beam splitter is about 3 kW. Among the pioneering developments of GEO600 also includes the mounting of the mirror of glass fibers. Furthermore, the end mirrors are isolated by active vibration dampers and by a three-stage pendulum suspension of seismic disturbances.

Einstein @ home

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration operates on the analysis of their data, a project for distributed computing ( engl. distributed computing ) called Einstein @ home, similar to the SETI @ home project, in which everyone can participate.

Specifications

  • Vacuum tube: 2 × 600 m long, 60 cm diameter, 0.8 mm thickness
  • Vacuum: pressure ~ 10-8 mbar
  • Laser: diode-pumped Nd: YAG laser at 1064 nm
  • Laser power: 10 W Output power ( single-mode )
  • Power amplification up to 10 kW
  • Signal amplification: up to 100 times
  • Optics: quartz glass mirror with 25 cm diameter
  • Relative sensitivity: 10-21 for pulsed signals
List of types of interferometers
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