Past, present and future of the Resonant-Mass gravitational wave detectors

Aguiar, O. D.

doi:10.1088/1674-4527/11/1/001

Cited by 74 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 154 publications

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“…It is difficult to find a community consensus of what this might mean. In a review of Weber Bar detectors, Aguiar (2011) wrote: "Did the bars detect gravitons from SN1987A or some other particles that excited the bars by thermoelastic processes? In any case, we hope that another supernova will solve this problem".…”

Section: Gravitational Wavesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robert Dicke and the naissance of experimental gravity physics, 1957–1967

Peebles

2016

EPJ H

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The experimental study of gravity became much more active in the late 1950s, a change pronounced enough be termed the birth, or naissance, of experimental gravity physics. I present a review of developments in this subject since 1915, through the broad range of new approaches that commenced in the late 1950s, and up to the transition of experimental gravity physics to what might be termed a normal and accepted part of physical science in the late 1960s. This review shows the importance of advances in technology, here as in all branches of natural science. The role of contingency is illustrated by Robert Dicke's decision in the mid-1950s to change directions in mid-career, to lead a research group dedicated to the experimental study of gravity. The review also shows the power of nonempirical evidence. Some in the 1950s felt that general relativity theory is so logically sound as to be scarcely worth the testing. But Dicke and others argued that a poorly tested theory is only that, and that other nonempirical arguments, based on Mach's Principle and Dirac's Large Numbers hypothesis, suggested it would be worth looking for a better theory of gravity. I conclude by offering lessons from this history, some peculiar to the study of gravity physics during the naissance, some of more general relevance. The central lesson, which is familiar but not always well advertised, is that physical theories can be empirically established, sometimes with surprising results.

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Section: Gravitational Wavesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robert Dicke and the naissance of experimental gravity physics, 1957–1967

Peebles

2016

EPJ H

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“…This first generation of bar detectors reached a sensitivity to gravitational wave strain amplitudes of 10 −16 by the end of the 1960s [33]. Weber's electrifying claim of the detection of signals associated with the center of our galaxy [32] inspired a worldwide effort leading to one or more bar detectors operating in China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA, and USSR [33,34]. Unfortunately, even though the subsequent experiments of this first generation of bars were more sensitive than Weber's, they failed to confirm his detection.…”

Section: Part Ii: New Window On the Universementioning

confidence: 99%

“…By the first decade of this century, the largest bars had reached the size of 3 meters and the mass of more than 2 tons, were operated at cryogenic temperatures as low as 0.1 K to minimize thermal noise, and achieved a strain sensitivity of ≈ 10 −21 / √ Hz at 900 Hz. Prototypes of novel designs for resonant mass detectors were developed in this period with at least one prototype currently under construction [34].…”

Section: Part Ii: New Window On the Universementioning

confidence: 99%

General relativity and gravitation: a centennial perspective

Buonanno¹

2016

Choice Reviews Online

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“…Though the first experimental confirmation that light does carry momentum was performed as far back as 1901 [7,8], the modern field of optomechanics did not arise until circa 1960. At that time a key goal was the detection of gravitational waves using resonant bars [9] or large interferometers with mechanically-compliant mirrors. Quantum mechanics entered the picture when it was shown that vacuum fluctuations of the optical field set a limit to how sensitively the necessary position measurements can be made [10][11][12][13], and that the mechanical vibrations themselves could be on the quantum scale [9,14].…”

Section: Quantum Optomechanicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since we are dealing with classical fields that are not wide-sense stationary we cannot use the Wiener-Khinchin theorem (Eqn (3.18)) given earlier; in this case 9 we instead have…”

Section: Example: Detecting Amplitude and Phase Modulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum optomechanics in the unresolved sideband regime

Bennett¹

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A cavity optomechanical system is formed when the resonance frequency of an optical cavity is dependent upon the position of a mechanical oscillator. This is achieved in a plethora of physical systems, spanning the range from cold atom clouds trapped in miniaturised optical cavities through to the kilogram-scale test masses of the four kilometre long advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitationalwave Observatory. The dynamical coupling between light and vibration thus engendered modifies both the optical and mechanical behaviours, and is responsible for a number of intriguing phenomena.Indeed, with optomechanical tools it becomes possible to observe the fact that macroscopic mechanical oscillators are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, rather than familiar classical equations of motion. The preparation of mechanical oscillators in truly quantum states, such as squeezed states and two-mode entangled states, has already been experimentally demonstrated. It is predicted that further advances along these lines will permit sensitive tests of fundamental physics, in addition to delivering significant improvements to sensor and information processing technologies.The majority of optomechanical protocols developed to date operate in the so-called resolved sideband limit, where the cavity bandwidth is small compared to the mechanical resonance frequency.This ensures that the optical cavity may be employed as a frequency-selective element for performing coherent control, but it also limits the quantity of circulating optical power and prevents one from reaching the standard quantum limit for position and force detection.In this thesis we report research that has expanded the optomechanical toolbox in the unresolved sideband regime, where the linewidth of the cavity is larger than the mechanical resonance frequency. This is a natural operating regime for large-mass and/or low-frequency mechanical oscillators; microcavity devices with small mode volumes and large optomechanical coupling rates; high-bandwidth, high-quantum-efficiency position and force detection; optical pulse manipulation; and hybrid devices couple to low-frequency quantum ancillae, such as the motional degrees of freedom of cold atoms.We begin this thesis by providing introductory material which covers advances in optomechanics and related fields; useful theoretical tools and their physical meanings; and some insights into technical details. These materials are included in the hope that they might be useful to other researchers in the field.Our first contribution to optomechanics in the unresolved sideband regime is a theoretical study of a remotely-coupled hybrid atom-optomechanical system. This uses a cloud of cold atoms as a 'quantum handle' with which to control the state of a mechanical oscillator. The two systems are coupled via light, which significantly relaxes experimental requirements on integration of vacuum and cryogenic apparatus. We derive the conditions under which laser cooling of the atomic ensemble permits one to sympathetica...

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Past, present and future of the Resonant-Mass gravitational wave detectors

Cited by 74 publications

References 154 publications

Robert Dicke and the naissance of experimental gravity physics, 1957–1967

Robert Dicke and the naissance of experimental gravity physics, 1957–1967

General relativity and gravitation: a centennial perspective

Quantum optomechanics in the unresolved sideband regime

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