The quest for gravitational

waves

European Gravitational Observatory

EGO

“Raison d'être”, origin, structure & future perspectives

Federico Ferrini – EGO Director

Welcome toThe Einstein Telescope

Design Study Presentation

3

The Universe has been studied essentially through EM radiation.

GWs have a different origin.

The Scientific Motivation

According to General Relativity, gravitational fields distort space-time.

GW’s alternately squeeze and stretch space in two perpendicular directions

•displacement of free masses

•deformation of elastic bodies

To detect GW’s:

• monitor distances among free masses

• detect ringing of mechanical resonators

The Physical Effect

The VIRGO Collaboration First studies:

– Brillet (Nice): optics– Giazotto (Pisa): seismic isolation

Collaboration Italy - France established in 1992CNRS and INFN approved the VIRGO project1997: Construction starts near Pisa

Foundation of EGO in 2000 2004/2005 Commissioning 2006 PhysicsNetherlands: Nikhef joined EGO in 2006

EGO Council approved Advanced VIRGO in 2009Poland (POLGRAW) & Hungary (RMKI) joined EGO in 2010

The history of the project

EGO: French-Italian

Consortium to support & operate VIRGO

EGO in synthesis

and promote

cooperation for gravitational waves

physicsin Europe

EGO Council(INFN/CNRS/NIKHEF)

STACScientific and Technical Advisory Committee

EGO DirectorF. FERRINI

Scientific Director/Virgo SpokespersonF. FIDECARO

Virgo CollaborationF. FIDECARO

AdministrationSite & InfrastructureInterferometer operation Computing

Technical Coordination for upgrades

Directorate services

EGO Staff ~ 65 FTE

The Structure

EGO/VIRGOA large infrastructure :

• 3 km long arms: ΔL / L = 10-21 • 60 ha of land; ~150000 m3 of buildings• The largest high vacuum system in Europe : 7000 m3

P ≅10-9 mbar• High tech optics• Several class 10 clean rooms • 15000 m3 thermo stabilized to +- 0.2 °C• 600 kW electrical power• 24h/24h data taking; 1 TB/day collected

EGO / VIRGO LAPP – Annecy NIKHEF – Amsterdam RMKI - Budapest INFN – Firenze-Urbino INFN – Genova

LMA – Lyon INFN – Napoli OCA – Nice LAL – Orsay APC – Paris LKB - Paris

INFN – Padova-Trento INFN – Perugia INFN - Pisa INFN – Roma 1 INFN – Roma 2 POLGRAV - Warsaw

The Consortium shall have as its purpose the promotion of research in the field of gravitation in

Europe.

EGO pursues the following objectives:

“Ensures the construction of the antenna VIRGO, its operation, maintenance and upgrade as well as its exploitation.”

EGO Aims according to Statute

EGO Functioning

Human Resources:Staff: 63.5 FTE

36: Engineers and applied physicistsNationalities: Italy +

15 FTE: France, Germany, The Netherlands United Kingdom, Russia

Financial Resources:CNRS (France)INFN (Italy)

Nikhef (The Netherlands)

RMKI (Hungary)Polgrav (Poland)

To ensures operation, maintenance and upgrade of the interferometer VIRGO:

Infrastructures & laboratories:

OpticsElectronicsUltra-VacuumCryogenicsComputing

EGO Support to VIRGO

Optics Group: Main tasks

• Maintenance and support for all the on-site Virgo activity in which optical and electro-optical expertise is required, in particular:– Injection and detection system– Local controls– Locking– Alignment

• Involvement in commissioning activity:– Interferometer pre-alignment and automatic alignment– Injection system– Detection system– Diffused light– Thermal effects

• Reference within the collaboration for support in optics for Virgo. Relevant R&D activity: “High power input optical components for Advanced Virgo”.

• Main group involved in the Advanced Virgo INJ Subsystem

Electronic Group: Main Tasks

• Electronics Maintenance/Upgrade- Suspension electronics production, assembly and installation- Suspension electronics documentation, maintenance and upgrade- Injection System electronics maintenance support

• Commissioning support- Injection System electronics characterization and troubleshooting- Environmental Monitoring characterization- Specific devices electronics modification

•Advanced Virgo -Development of the Electronic needed for the INJ Subsystem-Electronic Standardisation

Operations group: Main Tasks

• Automation of ITF procedures– Coordination, maintenance, upgrades

• Detector Monitoring– Coordination, maintenance, requirement definitions, testing

• Training– Organization of training sessions and of the demonstration of the new

procedures– Full training program, 2-months long, set for the new hired operators

• Operation of Clean Rooms– Management and maintenance

• Commissioning support– Mirror Suspension Control, – Alignment, – Noise hunting

• Partecipation to the SAT AdV Subsystem – In vacuum cabling– Superattenuator components assembly

EGO:

carries out research in the field of gravitation of common interest of the Members

promotes contacts among scientists and engineers, dissemination and training for young researchers

promotes co-operation on experimental and theoretical gravitational waves researchin Europe

EGO Aims on a larger horizon (on Earth)

Coordination of EU projects:• 2004/2008 Participant of the ILIAS (Integrated Large Infrastructures for Astro-Particle Science) project, coordinator of the networking activity: N5-GW Antenna

•2008/2011 Einstein Telescope• coordination of the whole project• management of the centralized budget

• support to the ET science team• interface with the European Commission for all the

financial aspects• reporting activity

EGO & EU

Organization of ASPERA Industry Event21-22 October 2011, focus on “Optics and Laser”

Addressed both to all the GW experiments and to the “traditional” telescopes (CTA, Magic, ….)

Hosting next ASPERA outreach meeting (16-17 June)

Member of IDPASC, International Doctorate Network in Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Organization, in the ET framework, of ISAPP 2010, International School on Astro-Particle Physics

EU Researchers’ night partnership with INFN-LNFVirgo visits: Hosting about 1000 visitors/year (more than

250 in the last Open Doors event)

EGO & Outreaching

Established in 2004, the VIRGO EGO Scientific Forum is composed of 47 research groups active in the European scientific community.

EGO & Training

A total of 18 fellowships with a two-year duration have been funded in Italy (7), Spain (3), France (2), Germany (2), Greece (1), Hungary (1), Poland (1) and UK (1).

A yearly school to introduce Physics students to gravitational waves is organized since 2006. In addition, VESF launched a complementary yearly school on GW Data Analysis in 2010. More than 150 graduating students were introduced to GW and to the techniques used to detect them.

Three Steps:

Active participation in EU GW projects

Increase the participation of the National GW communities in Europe to EGO

Develop the dialogue with the GW communities in other regions of the World

EUROPEAN STRATEGY for EGO

Summary

• An efficient, responsive and light structure to support Virgo and promote European collaboration under supervision by national institutions

• EGO existence relies on Virgo/AdV success

• The future of GW in Europe depends upon a stronger collaboration between EU countries. EGO may prefigure the required infrastructure.

Advanced VIRGO