Stable operation of a 300-m laser interferometer with sufficient sensitivity to detect gravitational-wave events within our galaxy

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Apr 30;86(18):3950-4. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3950.

Abstract

TAMA300, an interferometric gravitational-wave detector with 300-m baseline length, has been developed and operated with sufficient sensitivity to detect gravitational-wave events within our galaxy and sufficient stability for observations; the interferometer was operated for over 10 hours stably and continuously. With a strain-equivalent noise level of h approximately 5x10(-21)/sqrt[Hz], a signal-to-noise ratio of 30 is expected for gravitational waves generated by a coalescence of 1.4M-1.4M binary neutron stars at 10 kpc distance. We evaluated the stability of the detector sensitivity with a 2-week data-taking run, collecting 160 hours of data to be analyzed in the search for gravitational waves.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Astronomy / instrumentation
  • Astronomy / methods*
  • Gravitation*
  • Lasers
  • Sensitivity and Specificity