Accurate calibration of test mass displacement in the LIGO interferometers

Abstract

We describe three fundamentally different methods we have applied to calibrate the test mass displacement actuators to search for systematic errors in the calibration of the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors. The actuation frequencies tested range from 90 Hz to 1 kHz and the actuation amplitudes range from 1e-6 m to 1e-18 m. For each of the four test mass actuators measured, the weighted mean coefficient over all frequencies for each technique deviates from the average actuation coefficient for all three techniques by less than 4%. This result indicates that systematic errors in the calibration of the responses of the LIGO detectors to differential length variations are within the stated uncertainties.

10 pages, 6 figures, submitted on 31 October 2009 to Classical and Quantum Gravity for the proceedings of 8th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves

References in corpus (5)

• LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
• Precise calibration of LIGO test mass actuators using photon radiation pressure
• Optimal Calibration Accuracy for Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Photon pressure induced test mass deformation in gravitational-wave detectors
• Benefits of Artificially Generated Gravity Gradients for Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Detectors

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• The Advanced LIGO Photon Calibrators
• Improving the absolute accuracy of the gravitational wave detectors by combining the photon pressure and gravity field calibrators
• Reconstruction of the gravitational wave signal $h(t)$ during the Virgo science runs and independent validation with a photon calibrator
• Can MOND type hypotheses be tested in a free fall laboratory environment?
• Calibration of the LIGO displacement actuators via laser frequency modulation
• Development of advanced photon calibrator for Kamioka gravitational wave detector (KAGRA)