We apply a feedback cooling technique to simultaneously cool the three electromechanical normal modes of the ton-scale resonant-bar gravitational wave detector AURIGA. The measuring system is based on a dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) amplifier, and the feedback cooling is applied electronically to the input circuit of the SQUID. Starting from a bath temperature of 4.2 K, we achieve a minimum temperature of 0.17 mK for the coolest normal mode. The same technique, implemented in a dedicated experiment at subkelvin bath temperature and with a quantum limited SQUID, could allow to approach the quantum ground state of a kilogram-scale mechanical resonator.

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We analyze heat and work fluctuations in the gravitational wave detector AURIGA, modeled as a macroscopic electromechanical oscillator in contact with a thermostat and cooled by an active feedback system. The oscillator is driven to a steady state by the feedback cooling, equivalent to a viscous force. The experimentally measured fluctuations are in agreement with our theoretical analysis based on a stochastically driven Langevin system. The asymmetry of the fluctuations of the absorbed heat characterizes the oscillator's nonequilibrium steady state and reveals the extent to which a feedback cooled system departs from equilibrium in a statistical mechanics perspective.

The network of resonant bar detectors of gravitational waves resumed coordinated observations within the International Gravitational Event Collaboration (IGEC-2). Four detectors are taking part in this Collaboration: ALLEGRO, AURIGA, EXPLORER and NAUTILUS. We present here the results of the search for gravitational wave bursts over 6 months during 2005, when IGEC-2 was the only gravitational wave observatory in operation. The implemented network data analysis is based on a time coincidence search among AURIGA, EXPLORER and NAUTILUS; ALLEGRO data was reserved for follow-up studies. The network amplitude sensitivity to bursts improved by a factor 3 over the 1997-2000 IGEC observations; the wider sensitive band also allowed the analysis to be tuned over a larger class of waveforms. Given the higher single-detector duty factors, the analysis was based on threefold coincidence, to ensure the identification of any single candidate of gravitational waves with high statistical confidence. The false detection rate was as low as 1 per century. No candidates were found.

We describe the experimental efforts to set up the second AURIGA run. Thanks to the upgraded capacitive readout, fully characterized and optimized in a dedicated facility, we predict an improvement in the detector sensitivity and bandwidth by at least one order of magnitude. In the second run, AURIGA will also benefit from newly designed cryogenic mechanical suspensions and the upgraded data acquisition and data analysis.

We present here the results of a 515 day search for short burst of gravitational waves by the IGEC2 observatory. This network included 4 cryogenic resonant-bar detectors: AURIGA, EXPLORER and NAUTILUS in Europe, and ALLEGRO in America. These results cover the time period from Nov 6 2005 until Apr 15 2007, partly overlapping the first long term observations by the LIGO interferometeric detectors. The observatory operated with high duty cycle, namely 57% for 4-fold coincident observations, and 94% for 3-fold observations. The sensitivity was the best ever obtained by a bar network: we could detect impulsive events with a burst strain amplitude hrss ∼ 1 · 10with an efficiency ¿50%. The network data analysis was based on time coincidence searches over at least three detectors, used a blind search technique and was tuned to achieve a false alarm rate of 1/century. When the blinding was removed, no gravitational wave candidate was found.PACS numbers: 04.80. Nn, 95.30.Sf, 95.85.Sz

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At the time when the giant flare of SGR1806-20 occurred, the AURIGA "bar" gravitational-wave (GW) detector was on the air with a noise performance close to stationary Gaussian. This allows us to set relevant upper limits, at a number of frequencies in the vicinities of 900 Hz, on the amplitude of the damped GW wave trains, which, according to current models, could have been emitted, due to the excitation of normal modes of the star associated with the peak in x-ray luminosity.