The advanced Virgo + project: improving the sensitivity of the gravitational-wave detector Virgo

Second generation gravitational wave (GW) detectors opened the era of gravitational wave astronomy with the fist GW detection in 2015 and are now approaching their design sensitivity. During the 3 past observation runs, they detected 15 GW signals produced by the merging of binary compact objects, providing a wealth of scientific results ranging from the general relativity, to astrophysics and cosmology.

At present all the detectors of the network (Advanced Virgo in Italy, the two Advanced LIGO in US and KAGRA in Japan) are undergoing an upgrade phase with the goal to increase the sensitivity and better exploit the scientific potential of gravitational wave astronomy.  This will allow to investigate exciting open questions as the nature of gravitation and dark energy, the properties of nuclear matter and the formation of neutron star and black-hole through the cosmic history

A fourth observation run (O4) is expected to start in 2021 and a fifth one (O5) will follow after an addition upgrade period.

The Virgo group at APC is contributing to the experimental development of the detector as well as to the data analysis of the network.

The thesis will take place during the current upgrading phase of Advanced Virgo, called Advanced Virgo +. The first part will be focused on the commissions of the instrument. Among the upgrades planned for O5 there is the implementation of the so-called frequency dependent squeezing, which will use of a 300 m optical cavity to reduce quantum noise, the main limitation to the detector sensitivity in the whole frequency bandwidth. The candidate will contribute to the commissions of this system, partly working at the Virgo site.

Later she/he will participate to the preparation for the Advanced Virgo+ phase II, whose main aim is the reduction of thermal noise, which is obtained by enlarging the beam size on some of the interferometer mirrors.

In parallel to the experimental activity, the candidate will have the possibility to work on some aspect of the design for longer term upgrade of Virgo and for the next generation detector Einstein Telescope.

Responsable: 

Matteo Barsuglia, Eleonora Capocasa

Services/Groupes: 

Année: 

2021

Formations: 

Stage

Niveau demandé: 

M2

Email du responsable: