LIGO Laboratory

Nov 11, 2024 | academic.oup.com | LIGO Laboratory

As the catalogue of gravitational-wave transients grows, several entries appear ‘exceptional’ within the population. Tipping the scales with a total mass of ∼150M , GW190521 likely contained black holes in the pair-instability mass gap. The event GW190814, meanwhile, is unusual for its extreme mass ratio and the mass of its secondary component.

Jan 29, 2024 | link.aps.org | LIGO Laboratory |Japan Science |Haoyu Wang |Yuta Michimura

Crystalline materials are promising candidates as substrates or high-reflective coatings of mirrors to reduce thermal noises in future laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors. However, birefringence of such materials could degrade the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors, not only because it can introduce optical losses, but also because its fluctuations create extra phase noise in the arm cavity reflected beam.

Sep 26, 2023 | academic.oup.com | Departament de Física |New Territories |LIGO Laboratory

Along their path from source to observer, gravitational waves may be gravitationally lensed by massive objects leading to distortion in the signals. Searches for these distortions amongst the observed signals from the current detector network have already been carried out, though there have as yet been no confident detections. However, predictions of the observation rate of lensing suggest detection in the future is a realistic possibility.

Sep 26, 2023 | academic.oup.com | Departament de Física |New Territories |LIGO Laboratory

Gravitational lensing of gravitational waves (GWs) happens when they pass nearby a massive object and the deformation of space–time caused by that object modifies their propagation. The observed modifications depend on the exact properties of the lens and include repeated events, phase shifts, changes in amplitude, beating patterns, and distortions (Ohanian 1974; Thorne 1983; Deguchi & Watson 1986; Wang, Stebbins & Turner 1996; Nakamura 1998; Takahashi & Nakamura 2003).