Accurate measurement of the time delay in the response of the LIGO gravitational wave detectors

Creators: Aso, Yoichi; Goetz, Evan; Kalmus, Peter; Matone, Luca; Márka, Szabolcs; Myers, Joshua; O'Reilly, Brian; Savage, Rick; Schwinberg, Paul; Siemens, Xavier; Sigg, Daniel; Smith, Nicolas

Abstract

We present a method to precisely calibrate the time delay in a long baseline gravitational-wave interferometer. An accurate time stamp is crucial for data analysis of gravitational wave detectors, especially when performing coincidence and correlation analyses between multiple detectors. Our method uses an intensity-modulated radiation pressure force to actuate on the mirrors. The time delay is measured by comparing the phase of the signal at the actuation point with the phase of the recorded signal within the calibrated data stream used for gravitational wave searches. Because the signal-injection path is independent of the interferometer's control system, which is used for the standard calibration, this method can be an independent verification of the timing error in the system. A measurement performed with the 4 km interferometer at the LIGO Hanford Observatory shows a 1 µs relative accuracy when averaging over 50 min. Our understanding of the systematic time delay in the detector response has reached the level of 10 µs.

Additional Information

© 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd. Print publication: Issue 5 (7 March 2009). Received 8 September 2008, in final form 28 December 2008. Published 17 February 2009. The authors are grateful for the support of the United States National Science Foundation under cooperative agreement PHY-04-57528 and Columbia University in the City of New York. We are grateful to the LIGO collaboration for their support. We are indebted to many of our colleagues for frequent and fruitful discussion. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the United States National Science Foundation for the construction and operation of the LIGO Laboratory and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the United Kingdom, the Max-Planck-Society and the State of Niedersachsen/Germany for support of the construction and operation of the GEO600 detector. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the research by these agencies and by the Australian Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, the Department of Science and Technology of India, the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Research Corporation, and the Alfred PFF Sloan Foundation. The LIGO Observatories were constructed by the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with funding from the National Science Foundation under cooperative agreement PHY-9210038. The LIGO Laboratory operates under cooperative agreement PHY-0107417. This paper has been assigned LIGO Document Number LIGO-P080072-00-Z. PACS numbers: 95.55.Ym, 04.80.−y

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