Thermally excited vibrations of the mirrors of laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors
- 15 July 1995
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review D
- Vol. 52 (2), 577-585
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.52.577
Abstract
The effect of thermally excited mirror vibrations on length measurements using a laser interferometer gravitational-wave detector is calculated, and the number of vibrational modes which must be included to predict the Brownian motion of the mirror surface relative to its center of mass is estimated. These calculations account for both the full three-dimensional shape of the vibrational modes of the mirrors and the spatial shape of the optical modes of the interferometer. A convergence pattern for the number of modes which must be included in a complete thermal noise estimate is found; all vibrational modes with acoustic wavelengths greater than the laser beam spot size must be considered. When the full geometries of the mirror and the optical mode are taken into account, the thermal noise power in the gravitational-wave frequency bandwidth for mirror and laser parameters relevant to the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) interferometer is approximately a factor of 6 larger than the noise obtained in earlier estimates which typically considered only the lowest few modes. If mirror vibrational thermal noise were the limiting noise source for the detection of some astrophysical sources, then this difference in noise power would result in a factor of 15 difference in estimated determination rates for these sources.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mirror thermal noise in interferometric gravitational-wave detectorsPhysics Letters A, 1995
- Suspension losses in the pendula of laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectorsPhysics Letters A, 1994
- Brownian motion of a mass suspended by an anelastic wireThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1994
- Aspects of the thermal motion of a mass suspended as a pendulum by wiresPhysics Letters A, 1993
- LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave ObservatoryScience, 1992
- Thermal noise in mechanical experimentsPhysical Review D, 1990
- The VIRGO Project: A wide band antenna for gravitational wave detectionNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 1990
- Noise behavior of the Garching 30-meter prototype gravitational-wave detectorPhysical Review D, 1988
- Vibrations of Solid CylindersJournal of Applied Mechanics, 1980
- Laser Beams and ResonatorsApplied Optics, 1966