A three-dimensional laser interferometer gravitational-wave detector

Mengxu Liu,Biping Gong

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-72850-6

Mengxu Liu, Biping Gong

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72850-6

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Abstract

The gravitational wave (GW) has opened a new window to the universe beyond the electromagnetic spectrum. Since 2015, dozens of GW events have been caught by the ground-based GW detectors through laser interferometry. However, all the ground-based detectors are L-shaped Michelson interferometers, with very limited directional response to GW. Here we propose a three-dimensional (3-D) laser interferometer detector in the shape of a regular triangular pyramid, which has more spherically symmetric antenna pattern. Moreover, the new configuration corresponds to much stronger constraints on parameters of GW sources, and is capable of constructing null-streams to get rid of the signal-like noise events. A 3-D detector of kilometer scale of such kind would shed new light on the joint search of GW and electromagnetic emission.

Highlights

The gravitational wave (GW) has opened a new window to the universe beyond the electromagnetic spectrum
Most GW detection on the ground are performed in the high frequency band (10 Hz–100 kHz), by the long arm laser interferometers, such as TAMA 300 m interferometer[2], the GEO 600 m interferometer[3], and the kilometer size laser-interferometric GW detectors like Advance LIGO (4 km arm length)[4], Advance VIRGO (3 km arm length)[5], and the following ET (10 km arm length)[6]
The higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and higher probability of identification of GW events will be useful in answering questions, like the origin and evolution of black hole and the inner structure of NS

Summary

Introduction

The gravitational wave (GW) has opened a new window to the universe beyond the electromagnetic spectrum. All the ground-based detectors are L-shaped Michelson interferometers, with very limited directional response to GW. We propose a three-dimensional (3-D) laser interferometer detector in the shape of a regular triangular pyramid, which has more spherically symmetric antenna pattern. Interferometer detectors on the ground are all L-shaped, and most of them are Michelson interferometers This kind of detectors has quite limited sensitivity for specific directions, namely, blind directions, which is the main reason why the Advance VIRGO failed to detect the GW170817 e vent[7]. By sharing the common laser source, three interferometers possess the same laser stability Such a configuration guaratee that the gravity effect on the two arms of each interferometer is approximately equivalent. The same noise environment in each arm is maintained at the utmost

Discussion

Conclusion