Environmental Influences on the LIGO Gravitational Wave Detectors during the 6th Science Run

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how environmental noise affected LIGO's gravitational wave detectors during the sixth science run, highlighting the importance of sensors for noise vetoes and proposing reduction strategies for future upgrades.

Contribution

It provides detailed experimental insights into environmental noise coupling mechanisms and emphasizes the role of sensors in improving detector sensitivity and false positive vetoes.

Findings

Environmental noise significantly impacted detector sensitivity.

Sensors are crucial for vetoing false positives.

Strategies for reducing environmental coupling in Advanced LIGO are discussed.

Abstract

We describe the influence of environmental noise on LIGO detectors in the sixth science run (S6), from July 2009 to October 2010. We show results from experimental investigations testing the coupling level and mechanisms for acoustic, electromagnetic/magnetic and seismic noise to the instruments. We argument the sensors' importance for vetoes of false positive detections, report estimates of the noise sources' contributions to the detector background, and discuss the ways in which environmental coupling should be reduced in the LIGO upgrade, Advanced LIGO.