LIGO: The Laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory

B. Abbott,Richard J. Abbott,Rana X. Adhikari,Parameswaran Ajith,Bruce Allen,Gabrielle Allen,R. S. Amin,S.B. Anderson,W. G. Anderson,Muzammil A. Arain,M. C. Araya,H. Armandula,P. Armor,Yoichi Aso,S. Aston,Peter Aufmuth,C. Aulbert,S. Babak,P. T. Baker,S. W. Ballmer,C. Barker,D. Barker,B. W. Barr,Pablo Barriga,Lisa Barsotti,M. A. Barton,Imre Bartos,Riccardo Bassiri,M. Bastarrika,B. Behnke,Matthew Benacquista,J. Betzwieser,P. T. Beyersdorf,I. A. Bilenko,G. Billingsley,R. Biswas,Eric D. Black,J. K. Blackburn,L. Blackburn,David Blair,B. Bland,T. P. Bodiya,L. Bogue,R. Bork,V. Boschi,Suvadeep Bose,P. R. Brady,Vladimir B. Braginsky,J.E. Brau,D. O. Bridges,M. Brinkmann,A. F. Brooks,D. A. Brown,A. Brummit,G. Brunet,A. Bullington,Alessandra Buonanno,O. Burmeister,Robert L. Byer,Laura Cadonati,J. B. Camp,John K. Cannizzo,K. C. Cannon,Junwei Cao,L. Cardenas,S. Caride,Giuseppe Castaldi,Sarah Caudill,M. Cavagli,Carlos Cepeda,T. Chalermsongsak,E. Chalkley,P. 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Vahlbruch,Michele Vallisneri,C. Van Den Broeck,M. V. Van Der Sluys,A. A. van Veggel,S. Vass,Ruslan Vaulin,Alberto Vecchio,John Veitch,P. J. Veitch,C. Veltkamp,A. E. Villar,C. Vorvick,S. P. Vyachanin,Sj Waldman,L. Wallace,R. L. Ward,A. Weidner,M. Weinert,A. J. Weinstein,Rainer Weiss,Linqing Wen,S. Wen,K. Wette,John T. Whelan,S. E. Whitcomb,B. F. Whiting,C. Wilkinson,Phil Willems,H. R. Williams,L. Williams,Benno Willke,I. Wilmut,L. Winkelmann,Walter Winkler,C. C. Wipf,A. G. Wiseman,Graham Woan,R. Wooley,J. Worden,W. Wu,I. Yakushin,H Yamamoto,Zewu Yan,Sanichiro Yoshida,Michele Zanolin,J. Zhang,Liang Zhang,Chunnong Zhao,N. Zotov,Michael E Zucker,H. zur Mühlen,J. Zweizig

LIGO: The Laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory

2009

The goal of the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is to detect and study gravitational waves (GWs) of astrophysical origin. Direct detection of GWs holds the promise of testing general relativity in the strong-field regime, of providing a new probe of exotic objects such as black holes and neutron stars and of uncovering unanticipated new astrophysics. LIGO, a joint Caltech?MIT project supported by the National Science Foundation, operates three multi-kilometer interferometers at two widely separated sites in the United States. These detectors are the result of decades of worldwide technology development, design, construction and commissioning. They are now operating at their design sensitivity, and are sensitive to gravitational wave strains smaller than one part in 1021. With this unprecedented sensitivity, the data are being analyzed to detect or place limits on GWs from a variety of potential astrophysical sources.

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