Advanced LIGO subsystems
are the organizational units of the overall project. Follow the links below to view the mission and progress of each subsystem.
Auxiliary Optics | Core Optics |
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Data Acquisition | Data and Computing Systems |
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Facilities Modifications |
Input Optics |
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Interferometer Control |
Pre-Stabilized Laser |
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Seismic Isolation |
Suspensions |
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Advanced LIGO News
Hanford's 2 Kilometer H2 Detector Grows Longer
July 2011
Throughout the Initial LIGO era, LIGO Hanford operated a 4-kilometer interferometer (H1) and a 2-kilometer interferometer (H2). In June and July of 2011, personnel from LIGO and Apollo Sheet Metal moved H2's terminal vacuum chambers from the mid stations, two kilometers away from the vertex of the arms, to the end stations, four kilometers away. The H2 chambers now join the H1 chambers that always have occupied the end stations. Lengthening the arms of H2 will render H2 as sensitive to gravitational waves as H1 and the Livingston 4-kilometer detector, L1.
The moving team faced the challenge of extracting each 20,000 pound chamber from the beam line, transporting the chamber to the end station and re-inserting it in the beam line to the rear of its H1 counterpart. These tasks needed to occur without jarring the chamber and without contaminating either the interior of the chamber or the interior of the adjacent tube sections in the old and new locations. At the start, grout that covered the chamber's floor bolts was removed. Crews detached the chamber from its neighboring tube sections, a maneuver that required great care and a bit of speed to minimize the incursion of contaminates. Once uncoupled, the chamber was craned onto a carraige (welded from excessed Initial LIGO chamber supports), wheeled out of doors, craned onto a flatbed trailer and driven slowly to the end station. At the end station the crew repeated the entire process in reverse, ultimately re-attaching the chamber to the floor inside the vacuum equipment area where, using high precision surveying, personnel bolted the chamber into its proper location with 0.0001 inch uncertainty.
Personnel from Apollo Sheet metal in Kennewick, WA continue to play a key role in Hanford's Advanced LIGO effort by providing expert service in rigging, craning, high-precision welding, surveying and alignment, technical cleaning and other industrial activities.
Image 1: A gantry crane and overhead crane lift the chamber out of the beam line
Image 2: The flatbed receives the X-arm chamber on a beautiful July morning
Image 3: Rising off of the flatbed at the end station
Image 4: Riding the carraige into the air lock at the end station
aLIGO News Archive
August 2016 -- LIGO Reports O1 Results
June 2016 -- Another Black Hole Merger
Feburary 2016 -- First Gravitational Wave Detection
November 2015 -- O1 Progress Report
August 2015 -- Final Preparations for the O1 Run
February 2015 -- Hanford's H1 Achieves Two-Hour Lock
July 2014 -- Livingston Commissioning Progress
June 2014 -- Livingston Locks the L1 Interferometer
December 2013 -- Livingston Installs End Station Payloads
September 2013 -- Half-interferometer Test Closes
June 2013 -- DRMI Test at Livingston
May 2013 -- Arm Length Stabilization
November 2012 -- One-arm Test at Hanford
September 2012 -- LIGO Begins Locking Optical Cavities
August 2012 -- Installation of Stray Light Controls
July 2012 -- Small Optic Suspenions Enter L1
April 2012 -- First Cartridges Enter the Vacuum
November 2011 -- Glass Fiber Suspensions in Production
October 2011 -- Continued Suspension Development
July 2011 -- Hanford's H2 Becomes a 4K
May 2011 -- LLO Laser Installation Completed
March 2011 -- Input and Output Tubes Undergo Removal
February 2011 -- New Laser Enclosure Takes Shape
December 2010 -- Initial LIGO Comes Out of the Vacuum
October 2010 -- S6 Yields to Advanced LIGO
Explore Advanced LIGO
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An Overview of the Upgrades
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