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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Characterizing gravitational wave detector networks: from A # to cosmic explorer

Gravitational-wave observations by the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (LIGO) and Virgo have provided us a new tool to explore the Universe on all scales from nuclear physics to the cosmos and have the massive potential to further impact fundamental physics, astrophysics, and cosmology for decades to come. In this paper we have studied the science capabilities of a network of LIGO detectors when they reach their best possible sensitivity, called A # , given the infrastructure in which they exist and a new generation of observatories that are factor of 10 to 100 times more sensitive (depending on the frequency), in particular a pair of L-shaped cosmic explorer (CE) observatories (one 40 km and one 20 km arm length) in the US and the triangular Einstein telescope with 10 km arms in Europe. We use a set of science metrics derived from the top priorities of several funding agencies to characterize the science capabilities of different networks. The presence of one or two A # observatories in a network containing two or one next generation observatories, respectively, will provide good localization capabilities for facilitating multimessenger astronomy (MMA) and precision measurement of the Hubble parameter. Two CE observatories are indispensable for achieving precise localization of binary neutron star events, facilitating detection of electromagnetic counterparts and transforming MMA. Their combined operation is even more important in the detection and localization of high-redshift sources, such as binary neutron stars, beyond the star-formation peak, and primordial black hole mergers, which may occur roughly 100 million years after the Big Bang. The addition of the Einstein Telescope to a network of two CE observatories is critical for accomplishing all the identified science metrics including the nuclear equation of state, cosmological parameters, the growth of black holes through cosmic history, but also make new discoveries such as the presence of dark matter within or around neutron stars and black holes, continuous gravitational waves from rotating neutron stars, transient signals from supernovae, and the production of stellar-mass black holes in the early Universe. For most metrics the triple network of next generation terrestrial observatories are a factor 100 better than what can be accomplished by a network of three A # observatories.

Einstein telescope↗
DOE OSTI2024

Observational prospects of self-interacting scalar superradiance with next-generation gravitational-wave detectors

Abstract Current- and next-generation gravitational-wave observatories may reveal new, ultralight bosons. Through the superradiance process, these theoretical particle candidates can form clouds around astrophysical black holes and result in detectable gravitational-wave radiation. In the absence of detections, constraints—contingent on astrophysical assumptions—have been derived using LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data on boson masses. However, the searches for ultralight scalars to date have not adequately considered self-interactions between particles. Self-interactions that significantly alter superradiance dynamics are generically present for many scalar models, including axion-like dark matter candidates and string axions. We implement the most complete treatment of particle self-interactions available to determine the gravitational-wave signatures expected from superradiant scalar clouds and revisit the constraints obtained in a past gravitational-wave search targeting the black hole in Cygnus X-1. We also project the reach of next-generation gravitational-wave observatories to scalar particle parameter space in the mass-coupling plane. We find that while proposed observatories have insufficient reach to self-interactions that can halt black hole spin-down, next-generation observatories are essential for expanding the search beyond gravitational parameter space and can reach a mass and interaction scale of ∼ 10 − 13 –10 −12 eV / c 2 and ≳ 10 17 GeV, respectively.

Collaviti, Spencer (ORCID:0009000372808236)↗
NASA NTRS1971

Properties of hollow square gravitational wave detectors

Antennas are described with gravitational radiation properties such as polarization, directivity, and scalar and tensor characteristics. These antenna devices are mechanically resonant systems in the shape of a hollow square with fundamental frequencies in the Hz range. An antenna characteristic is that the absorption cross section for quadrupole radiation at the normal frequency of vibration is the same as that of the fundamental if the damping factors are the same. The absorption cross section of quadrupole gravitational radiation is calculated for a class-1 detector of a cylindrical cross section and for a class-2 detector shaped like a hollow square.

Douglass, D. H., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Design aspects of a laser gravitational wave detector in space

Certain optical and mechanical aspects of a proposed laser gravitational wave antenna in space are briefly discussed. The proposed concept consists of a free-mass antenna with the test masses separated by a distance of 1,000,000 km. A laser heterodyne technique is employed to measure the distance change between test masses resulting from gravitational wave interaction. The proposed scheme is considered to offer the necessary sensitivity to detect gravitational radiation from binary stars predicted by General Relativity Theory.

Decher, R.↗
NASA NTRS1979

The quantum limit for gravitational-wave detectors and methods of circumventing it

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle prevents the monitoring of the complex amplitude of a mechanical oscillator more accurately than a certain limit value. This 'quantum limit' is a serious obstacle to the achievement of a 10 to the -21st gravitational-wave detection sensitivity. This paper examines the principles of the back-action evasion technique and finds that this technique may be able to overcome the problem of the quantum limit. Back-action evasion does not solve, however, other problems of detection, such as weak coupling, large amplifier noise, and large Nyquist noise.

Thorne, K. S.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Ultra-High Vacuum Outgassing Characterization of Thermally Processed Low-Carbon Steel for Advanced Particle Accelerator and Gravitational Wave Detector Applications

This dissertation investigated AISI 1020 low-carbon steel as an alternative vacuum chamber material to conventional stainless steel for ultra-high vacuum (UHV) and extreme-high vacuum (XHV) applications. After a 400 °C/48 h bake, AISI 1020 tube chambers achieved a hydrogen outgassing rate of 2.4 × 10¿¹6 Torr·L·s¿¹·cm¿², approximately 2,300 times lower than the prebaked 316L stainless-steel comparator, among the lowest hydrogen outgassing rates ever reported for an uncoated metallic vacuum chamber. Bare and magnetite-coated AISI 1020 chambers were then compared using throughput and rate-of-rise methods. The magnetite coating yielded 5× lower water outgassing at room temperature, but this advantage disappeared after 80 °C baking. After full thermal conditioning (400 °C/48 h prebake followed by 150 °C/96 h and 200 °C/110 h), bare steel achieved 25× lower hydrogen outgassing than the magnetite-coated chamber (9.6 × 10¿¹6 Torr·L·s¿¹·cm¿²) and >99% H2 purity with carbon species below RGA detection. Monte Carlo molecular flow simulations of a CEBAF photogun beamline (96 scenarios) showed that replacing 304L stainless steel with AISI 1020 reduces equilibrium H2 pressure by a factor of 833; a single 304L electrode contributes 98.8% of the gas load despite occupying only 9.1% of the internal surface area. A 500-m Einstein Telescope beampipe screening showed that corrugated bellows contribute 18% of the gas load from only 0.7% of the surface area. A five-model adsorption isotherm framework applied to 22 pumpdown datasets (164 fits with AR(1)-GLS correction) established that the experimental protocol, not the material, controls isotherm identifiability: Dubinin–Radushkevich wins isothermal pipe pumpdowns; Langmuir wins thermally dominated chamber bakes. Cross-dataset joint fitting of the AISI 1020 pipe pumpdowns yielded an H2 diffusion activation energy Ed = 7.24 ± 1.28 kcal·mol¿¹, consistent with trap dominated diffusion in commercial low-carbon steels. Two companion innovations were developed: a Variable Conductance Device (VCD, patent pending IDF-00723) for XHV outgassing measurement, and VacuumDesignerPro (VDP), a MATLAB-based design tool validated against LIGO benchmarks.

Al-Allaq, Aiman H [Old Dominion University]↗
DOE OSTI2025

Superconducting Levitated Detector of Gravitational Waves

A magnetically levitated mass couples to gravity and can act as an effective gravitational wave detector. We show that a superconducting sphere levitated in a quadrupolar magnetic field, when excited by a gravitational wave, will produce magnetic field fluctuations that can be read out using a flux tunable microwave resonator. With a readout operating at the standard quantum limit, such a system could achieve broadband strain noise sensitivity of h ≲ 10 − 20 / Hz for frequencies of 1 kHz–1 MHz, opening new corridors for astrophysical probes of new physics. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS2021

Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy in the 2020s and 2030s

The 100 years since the publication of Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity saw significant development of the understanding of the theory, the identification of potential astrophysical sources of sufficiently strong gravitational waves, and development of key technologies for gravitational-wave detectors. In 2015, the first gravitational wave signals were detected by the two US Advanced LIGO instruments. In 2017, Advanced LIGO and the European Advanced Virgo detectors pinpointed a binary neutron star coalescence that was also seen across the electromagnetic spectrum. The field of gravitational wave astronomy is just starting, and this Roadmap of future developments surveys the potential for growth in bandwidth and sensitivity of future gravitational-wave detectors and discusses the science results anticipated to come from upcoming instruments.

Compact astrophysical objects↗
NASA NTRS2004

Modeling of proof mass self-gravity field for the Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA)

This paper describes the development of the self-gravity modeling tool used to predict and control the motion of one of the proof masses of the orbiting LISA gravitational wave detector. LISA is a space-borne gravitational wave detector, which is formed by three spacecraft orbiting the Sun and forming the vertices of an equilateral triangle with a side of 5 million km in length. Requirements on the forces and moments, and the force gradients and moment gradients, applied to the proof mass exist. This paper computes these quantities analytically, so that gravitational balancing considerations can now be done effectively.

Quadrelli, Marco B.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Dark matter clumps as sources of gravitational-wave glitches in LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data

We consider the hypothetical possibility that nonstationary glitch features in the noise of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors could be produced by small dark matter clumps that pass through the earth in the vicinity of gravitational-wave detectors. Here, we first derive the gravitational-wave strain that would be generated by the passage of such a dark matter clump. We find that the strain is primarily sourced by the Newtonian gravitational acceleration of the mirrors toward the clump and by the Shapiro time delay of the photons in the laser beams as they pass through the gravitational potential created by the dark matter clump. We also find that the Newtonian acceleration effect dominates the gravitational-wave strain for both ground and space-based interferometers. We then compare our dark matter clump, gravitational-wave strain model to 84 Koi-Fish glitches detected during the second observing run of the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Collaboration through a Markov chain Monte Carlo Bayesian analysis. We find that all glitches but nine can be confidently rejected as having originated from dark matter clumps. For the remaining glitches, the dark matter hypothesis cannot be excluded, and the maximum a posteriori parameters yield minimum densities of about 10 −7 g⁡/cm 3 , within the model. These results allow us to place the first direct upper limits with gravitational-wave detectors on the local over-density of dark matter in the form of clumps in the local neighborhood of Earth, namely 𝜌 DM ⁢clumps ≲ 10 −15 g⁡/cm −3 .

Astronomy and AstroPhysics↗
NASA NTRS2014

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by the Interplanetary Network

We present the results of a search for gravitational waves associated with 223 gamma ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the InterPlanetary Network (IPN) in 2005-2010 during LIGO's fifth and sixth science runs and Virgo's first, second, and third science runs. The IPN satellites provide accurate times of the bursts and sky localizations that vary significantly from degree scale to hundreds of square degrees. We search for both a well-modeled binary coalescence signal, the favored progenitor model for short GRBs, and for generic, unmodeled gravitational wave bursts. Both searches use the event time and sky localization to improve the gravitational wave search sensitivity as compared to corresponding all-time, all-sky searches. We find no evidence of a gravitational wave signal associated with any of the IPN GRBs in the sample, nor do we find evidence for a population of weak gravitational wave signals associated with the GRBs. For all IPN-detected GRBs, for which a sufficient duration of quality gravitational wave data are available, we place lower bounds on the distance to the source in accordance with an optimistic assumption of gravitational wave emission energy of 10(exp−2) solar mass c(exp 2) at 150 Hz, and find a median of 13 Mpc. For the 27 short-hard GRBs we place 90% confidence exclusion distances to two source models: a binary neutron star coalescence, with a median distance of 12 Mpc, or the coalescence of a neutron star and black hole, with a median distance of 22 Mpc. Finally, we combine this search with previously published results to provide a population statement for GRB searches in first-generation LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors and a resulting examination of prospects for the advanced gravitational wave detectors.

gravitational wave detectors↗
DOE OSTI2025

Primordial black holes from first-order phase transition in the singlet-extended SM

Supercooled first-order phase transition (FOPT) can lead to the formation of primordial black holes (PBHs). This scenario imposes stringent requirements on the profile of the effective potential. In this work, we use the singlet extended Standard Model (xSM) as a benchmark model to investigate this possibility at the electroweak scale. The PBHs formed during a supercooled FOPT have a narrow mass distribution around the mass of Earth. This distribution is closely tied to the temperature at which the PBHs form, corresponding to the FOPT at the electroweak scale. This scenario can be probed with microlensing experiments, space-based gravitational wave detectors, and collider experiments. Remarkably, the future space-based gravitational wave detector LISA will hold the potential to either confirm this scenario that leads to PBH formation across the observable Universe in the xSM or completely rule it out. Interestingly, our findings suggest that PBHs within the xSM framework may align with observations of the six ultrashort timescale events reported by the OGLE microlensing experiment. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Gonçalves, Dorival (ORCID:0000000342234238)↗
NASA NTRS2021

High Angular Resolution Gravitational Wave Astronomy

Since the very beginning of astronomy the location of objects on the sky has been a fundamental observational quantity that has been taken for granted. While precise two dimensional positional information is easy to obtain for observations in the electromagnetic spectrum, the positional accuracy of current and near future gravitational wave detectors is limited to between tens and hundreds of square degrees, which makes it extremely challenging to identify the host galaxies of gravitational wave events or to detect any electromagnetic counterparts. Gravitational wave observations provide information on source properties that is complementary to the information in any associated electromagnetic emission. Observing systems with multiple messengers thus has scientific potential much greater than the sum of its parts. A gravitational wave detector with higher angular resolution would significantly increase the prospects for finding the hosts of gravitational wave sources and triggering a multi-messenger follow-up campaign. An observatory with arcminute precision or better could be realised within the Voyage 2050 programme by creating a large baseline interferometer array in space and would have transformative scientific potential. Precise positional information of standard sirens would enable precision measurements of cosmological parameters and offer new insights on structure formation; a high angular resolution gravitational wave observatory would allow the detection of a stochastic background and resolution of the anisotropies within it; it would also allow the study of accretion processes around black holes; and it would have tremendous potential for tests of modified gravity and the discovery of physics beyond the Standard Model.

Gravitational waves↗
NASA NTRS2011

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with the August 2006 Timing Glitch of the Vela Pulsar

The physical mechanisms responsible for pulsar timing glitches are thought to excite quasinormal mode oscillations in their parent neutron star that couple to gravitational-wave emission, In August 2006, a timing glitch was observed in the radio emission of PSR B0833-45, the Vela pulsar. At the time of the glitch, the two colocated Hanford gravitational-wave detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave observatory (LIGO) were operational and taking data as part of the fifth LIGO science run (S5). We present the first direct search for the gravitational-wave emission associated with oscillations of the fundamental quadrupole mode excited by a pulsar timing glitch. No gravitational-wave detection candidate was found. We place Bayesian 90% confidence upper limits of 6,3 x 10(exp -21) to 1.4 x 10(exp -20) on the peak: intrinsic strain amplitude of gravitational-wave ring-down signals, depending on which spherical harmonic mode is excited. The corresponding range of energy upper limits is 5.0 x 10(exp 44) to 1.3 x 10(exp 45) erg.

Camp, J. B.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Optimizing Vetoes for Gravitational-wave Transient Searches

Interferometric gravitational-wave detectors like LIGO, GEO600 and Virgo record a surplus of information above and beyond possible gravitational-wave events. These auxiliary channels capture information about the state of the detector and its surroundings which can be used to infer potential terrestrial noise sources of some gravitational-wave-like events. We present an algorithm addressing the ordering (or equivalently optimizing) of such information from auxiliary systems in gravitational-wave detectors to establish veto conditions in searches for gravitational-wave transients. The procedure was used to identify vetoes for searches for unmodelled transients by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations during their science runs from 2005 through 2007. In this work we present the details of the algorithm; we also use a limited amount of data from LIGO's past runs in order to examine the method, compare it with other methods, and identify its potential to characterize the instruments themselves. We examine the dependence of Receiver Operating Characteristic curves on the various parameters of the veto method and the implementation on real data. We find that the method robustly determines important auxiliary channels, ordering them by the apparent strength of their correlations to the gravitational-wave channel. This list can substantially reduce the background of noise events in the gravitational-wave data. In this way it can identify the source of glitches in the detector as well as assist in establishing confidence in the detection of gravitational-wave transients.

Transient↗
NASA NTRS2007

Binary Black Holes and Gravitational Waves

The final merger of two black holes releases a tremendous amount of energy, more than the combined light from all the stars in the visible universe. This energy is emitted in the form of gravitational waves, and observing these sources with gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO and LISA requires that we know the pattern or fingerprint of the radiation emitted. Since black hole mergers take place in regions of extreme gravitational fields, we need to solve Einstein's equations of general relativity on a computer in order to calculate these wave patterns. For more than 30 years, scientists have tried to compute these wave patterns. However, their computer codes have been plagued by problems that caused them to crash. This situation has changed dramatically in the past 2 years, with a series of amazing breakthroughs. This discussion examines these gravitational patterns, showing how a spacetime is constructed on a computer to build a simulation laboratory for binary black hole mergers. The focus is on recent advances that are revealing these waveforms, and the dramatic new potential for discoveries that arises when these sources will be observed by the space-based gravitational wave detector LISA.

Centrella, Joan↗