Abstract
The scientific objectives of the gravitational wave (g.w.) experiment of the Rome group are briefly reviewed: (a) detection of g.w. bursts emitted during supernovae explosions in the Virgo cluster, and (b) detection of monochromatic g.w. possibly emitted by fast pulsars. The interaction of a g.w. burst with a resonant antenna is considered. It is shown that in order to observe the supernovae in the Virgo cluster the resonant antenna should detect a Fourier transform value H( ν R) of the metric tensor perturbation H( t) of the order of: H( ν R) ∼ 3 × 10 −24/Hz at the antenna resonance frequency ν R ∼ 900 Hz. The Rome group has installed a cryogenic antenna at CERN that has started to operate from November 1985. It consists of an aluminum cylinder, 3 m long, weighing 2270 kg, cooled to 4.2 K and equipped with a resonant capacitive transducer and a dc SQUID amplifier. The present sensitivity expressed in terms of the minimum detectable value of H( ν R) is H min( ν R) ∼ 9 × 10 −22Hz −1. In order to reach the final goal it is necessary to cool the antenna than 0.1 K and to shield it from cosmic ray muons.
Published Version
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