First Measurements of High Frequency Cross-Spectra from a Pair of Large Michelson Interferometers

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Sep 9;117(11):111102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.111102. Epub 2016 Sep 9.

Abstract

Measurements are reported of the cross-correlation of spectra of differential position signals from the Fermilab Holometer, a pair of colocated 39 m long, high power Michelson interferometers with flat broadband frequency response in the MHz range. The instrument obtains sensitivity to high frequency correlated signals far exceeding any previous measurement in a broad frequency band extending beyond the 3.8 MHz inverse light-crossing time of the apparatus. The dominant but uncorrelated shot noise is averaged down over 2×10^{8} independent spectral measurements with 381 Hz frequency resolution to obtain 2.1×10^{-20}m/sqrt[Hz] sensitivity to stationary signals. For signal bandwidths Δf>11 kHz, the sensitivity to strain h or shear power spectral density of classical or exotic origin surpasses a milestone PSD_{δh}<t_{p} where t_{p}=5.39×10^{-44}/Hz is the Planck time.