Results of the First Coincident Observations by Two Laser-Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors

TL;DR

This paper reports an upper limit on gravitational wave burst amplitudes from coincident observations by two prototype laser interferometers, demonstrating the feasibility of future large-scale gravitational wave detection.

Contribution

First coincident observation results from two prototype laser interferometers, establishing a baseline for future gravitational wave detection efforts.

Findings

Set an upper bound of 4.9E-16 on gravitational wave strain amplitude

Demonstrated the viability of coincident observations with laser interferometers

Identified noise limitations affecting sensitivity

Abstract

We report an upper bound on the strain amplitude of gravitational wave bursts in a waveband from around 800Hz to 1.25kHz. In an effective coincident observing period of 62 hours, the prototype laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors of the University of Glasgow and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, have set a limit of 4.9E-16, averaging over wave polarizations and incident directions. This is roughly a factor of 2 worse than the theoretical best limit that the detectors could have set, the excess being due to unmodelled non-Gaussian noise. The experiment has demonstrated the viability of the kind of observations planned for the large-scale interferometers that should be on-line in a few years time.