Finite Element Analysis of the Third Generation Mirror Suspension Systems for Voyager

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LIGO-T1600293-v4
20 Sep 2016, 14:09

Abstract:: The Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (aLIGO) first detected gravitational waves (GW) from binary black hole mergers on September 14, 2015, by both the Hanford and Livingston aLIGO sites. The transition from initial LIGO to aLIGO focused on enhancing sensitivity throughout the GW detectors. One such change was increasing a one stage mirror suspension system to a multilevel system in order to improve isolation to seismic ground motion and thermal noise. The goal to improve aLIGO is to understand the sources of noise that decreases the sensitivity of the detectors. Thermal noise in the coating of the test masses is one of the main sources of noise that limits detector sensitivity within the suspension systems. Thermal noise results from the thermal energy of atoms and molecules in the mirrors and their suspensions. Using the program known as ANSYS, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is performed on different models of the mirror suspension systems. FEA will allow the analysis of realistic features applied to the test masses in order to understand the thermal noise from the suspensions using the Levin formalism.

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LIGO Document T1600293-v3