Gravitational Wave Detectors: A report from LIGO-land

TL;DR

This paper reports on the status, performance, and data analysis efforts of the LIGO gravitational wave detectors as of early 2003, highlighting preparations for their first science run and ongoing source limit setting.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive update on LIGO detector status, performance, and data analysis progress leading up to their first science run.

Findings

LIGO detectors were ready for their first science run.

Performance metrics from the Engineering Run are documented.

Efforts to set upper limits on gravitational wave sources are underway.

Abstract

At the time of this conference, in June 2002, The LIGO Science Collaboration was getting ready to perform its first Science Run, where data will be taken with all three LIGO detectors. We describe here the status of the LIGO detectors as of February 2003, their performance during the ``Engineering Run'' E7 (Dec 28'01-Jan 14'02) and subsequent Science Runs in 2002/3. We also describe ongoing efforts on data analysis for setting upper limits of different gravitational wave sources.