Effect of induced seismicity on advanced gravitational wave interferometers

Abstract

Advanced LIGO and the next generation of ground-based detectors aim to capture many more binary coalescences through improving sensitivity and duty cycle. Earthquakes have always been a limiting factor at low frequency where neither the pendulum suspension nor the active controls provide sufficient isolation to the test mass mirrors. Several control strategies have been proposed to reduce the impact of teleseismic events by switching to a robust configuration with less aggressive feedback. The continental United States has witnessed a huge increase in the number of induced earthquake events primarily associated with hydraulic fracking-related waste water re-injection. Effects from these differ from teleseismic earthquakes primarily because of their depth which is in turn linked to their triggering mechanism. In this paper, we discuss the impact caused due to these low magnitude regional earthquakes and explore ways to minimize the impact of induced seismicity on the detector.