The 2009 LIGO SURF Students Present, "The LIGO USA Rap"

Every summer the LIGO Laboratory welcomes a diverse group of undergraduates to collaborate in our gravitational-wave research, as part of Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. Funded in part through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program of the National Science Foundation, SURF lasts about ten weeks and students may perform their investigations at Caltech or at either of the LIGO Observatories in Hanford, Washington or Livingston, Louisiana.

This year Caltech hosted over two dozen undergraduates in the LIGO SURF program, and the areas of research included, "Advanced Interferometry on the Caltech 40-meter Interferometer," "Fiber Noise Suppression and Second-Harmonic Generation," "Advanced Methods for Gravitational-Wave Analysis of Soft Gamma Repeaters," as well as several others. As customary at the end of the program, the students submitted their research and technical papers, and provided a live presentation of their findings in a seminar very similar to that of professional science conferences.

Our 2009 LIGO SURF undergraduates not only submitted their requisite work, but also left us with a bit of extra credit material rarely found on any syllabus. They produced the "LIGO USA" rap, a toe-tapping music video that pays tribute to their summer with LIGO. Watch as the engineers and scientists of tomorrow lip-sync and boogie to pop classics in a gravitational-wave theme. It's a music video that briskly summarizes the LIGO mission... and gets your groove on as well.

"LIGO USA" - posted on You Tube.

LIGO Listens for Gravitational Echoes of the Birth of the Universe

An investigation by the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration has significantly advanced our understanding of the early evolution of the universe.

Analysis of data taken over a two-year period, from 2005 to 2007, has set the most stringent limits yet on the amount of gravitational waves that could have come from the Big Bang in the gravitational wave frequency band where LIGO can observe. In doing so, the gravitational-wave scientists have put new constraints on the details of how the universe looked in its earliest moments.

Read more ...

LSC Paper Highlighted by the Institute of Physics

A paper authored by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) was published last month in the "New Journal of Physics" and has been showcased in an article on the Institute of Physics (IOP) website. The LSC paper is titled, "Observation of a Kilogram-scale Oscillator near its Quantum Ground State," and describes LIGO's introduction of a novel cooling technique capable of approaching the quantum ground state of a kilogram-scale system. The work is ongoing and further refinements are expected. Thus, as the IOP article notes, in time "...it should be possible for quantum physicists to use the [LIGO] apparatus to observe quantum mechanical behaviour, such as quantum entanglement, at mass scales previously thought impractical." This is an excellent example of how fundamental work in one research field can have direct benefits to other areas of science and technology.

Read the complete Institute of Physics article as well as the published LIGO Scientific Collaboration paper here:
http://www.iop.org/News/news_35858.html

Firm Date Set for Start of S6

July 7th, 2009 has been announced as the official start date of LIGO's sixth science run (S6). This has been the tentative start date for some time and, since our progress toward the scientific and engineering goals of S6 has been on-track, the decision was made to commit to the date.

The sixth science run will use the enhanced LIGO upgrades to provide a marked increase in the power of LIGO's detectors, resulting in more than a two-fold increase in strain sensitivity and greater than a factor of 8 increase in the probed volume of the universe. (See the posting below "Enhanced LIGO and the Sixth Science Run" for more details.)

Current plans are to run S6 for approximately one month and then to shut down for a period to allow for a further round of commissioning and detector improvements. Once these adjustments are made, the interferometers will again be powered up and S6 will resume. The duration of the run is expected to extend through most of 2010, or as such time as it must conclude to make way for Advanced LIGO preparations.

Hanford 2-km Detector Retired

The most recent edition of "Listening to the Stars," the e-newsletter issued by the LIGO Hanford Observatory, contains this savory tidbit about the two-kilometer detector in Washington. This smaller cousin to Hanford's four-kilometer detector was nobly retired after a decade of continuous service in Initial LIGO. Get the details below...

"A milestone of sorts occurred at the LIGO Hanford Observatory on May 28 as the two-kilometer interferometer (H2) was operated for the final time in its existing configuration. As reported in our last edition, LIGO's sixth science run (S6) will begin in July 2009. LIGO data collection in S6 will occur on the four-kilometer detectors in Hanford and Louisiana (H1 and L1). The heightened sensitivities of these Enhanced LIGO machines will put them far enough ahead of H2 that the shorter detector will be removed from service. H2 will return in Advanced LIGO as a completely upgraded instrument with four-kilometer arms, rejoining H1 and L1 to provide LIGO with three full-length detectors fully outfitted with new mirrors, mirror suspensions, 180-watt lasers, multi-stage active vibration isolation and advanced signal processing. H2's retirement brings the era of Initial LIGO lasers to a full close as the laser systems in H1 and L1 already have been replaced for the Enhanced LIGO configuration. The H2 10-watt laser ran essentially continuously for more than 10 years, producing 1-micron light at a frequency stability of 1 part in 10¹⁰."

Read the entire recent edition of LIGO Hanford's "Listening to the Stars."

Enhanced LIGO and the Sixth Science Run

From its beginnings, LIGO was envisioned not as a one-shot experiment, but as an ongoing scientific quest with ever expanding reach. To that end, the two LIGO Observatories in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana, are now undergoing equipment upgrades and system improvements to prepare for LIGO's sixth science run, scheduled this summer. This program of instrument upgrades - collectively known as Enhanced LIGO - will allow the detectors to operate at unprecedented sensitivities beyond even those of initial LIGO.

Both of LIGO's four-kilometer interferometers will be boosted by new optics, increased laser power, advanced seismic isolation tables, and improved signal sensing. Once complete, this new configuration will achieve a two-fold increase in strain sensitivity and a corresponding factor of 8 increase in the probed volume of the universe.

In addition to enlarging the present scope of gravitational-wave searches, Enhanced LIGO and the sixth science run (S6) will provide an important testing ground for the next generation of improvements, called Advanced LIGO. The technologies in use for the predicted 18-month run of S6 will demonstrate Advanced LIGO systems which, when fully implemented in 2014, will boost the detectors' sensitivities by a factor of 10 and probe a volume of space a thousand times greater than initial LIGO.

Enhanced LIGO and the sixth Science Run, coming this summmer!

LIGO Wave Wall

This is an installation at the LIGO Livingston Observatory in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.