Virgo joins the measurement of gravitational waves

[mfb]

Finally... this month, Virgo and LIGO look for gravitational waves together (they started yesterday). The Virgo detector is a bit less sensitive than the LIGO detectors at the moment, but it is still a big improvement:

• It is an independent experiment, on a different continent run by different people. A simultaneous detection in all three detectors should remove any remaining doubt on the previous discoveries*.
• Triangulation of the source needs three detectors. The position estimates will be much more accurate, so it gets easier to look for corresponding signals in the electromagnetic spectrum.
• The third detector can also give polarization information, that helps constraining more parameters of the source.

They will run together for just this month. An event this month is certainly possible, but not guaranteed. Let's hope for the best. Afterwards all three detectors will work to improve their sensitivity for the next observation run in fall 2018.

Article at sciencenews.org*personal remark: I'm sure some Danish people will still be surprised that the templates never fit exactly, and write lengthy papers about this.

 

[fresh_42]

I wonder if the many tremors in Italy wouldn't cause plenty of re-calibration work. I really wondered about the location.

 

[Auto-Didact]

So, if we're lucky we get a new detection this month, or else we have to wait until fall 2018...
Those planned upgrades better be worth the year long pause.

 

[mfb]

The design sensitivity is about twice as good as the current one, which means 8 times the detection rate. Running for 8 years now would produce a similar science output as every year will do once they reach the design parameters. What they currently do is more about getting some idea how signals look like and finding some events for the theorists, the main results will be gained once they reach the design sensitivity (planned for 2019, after two rounds of upgrades compared to now).