Title: Gravitational-wave detectors in the next decade

Place: DAA Seminar. Jeroni Muñoz Research Building, fourth floor, in Campus de Burjassot.

Day: Tuesday, February 28, 2023. Time: 11:00.

Abstract:

After the first gravitational wave detection in 2015 and the multi-messenger observation of the binary neutron stars merger in 2017, gravitational wave astronomy has evolved rapidly. In 2019-2020, LIGO-Virgo carried out its third observing campaign, reaching nearly a hundred sources. Over the next decade, the gravitational wave detector network (which includes the 2 LIGOs, Virgo and Japanese KAGRA) will alternate between data takings and improvements. After recalling the scientific results obtained with previous observations, in this seminar I will discuss the main ideas and plans to improve interferometric gravitational wave detectors in the next decades and the scientific potential enabled by these improvements. In particular, I will describe how to circumvent the limitations imposed by quantum mechanics on detector sensitivity, such as the injection of “squeezed” vacuum states.