Alignment procedure for the VIRGO Interferometer: experimental results from the Frascati prototype

TL;DR

This paper presents experimental validation of an alignment method for the VIRGO interferometer using a Frascati prototype, demonstrating its effectiveness and sensitivity to minimal angular misalignments.

Contribution

The study provides the first experimental confirmation of the VIRGO alignment method's effectiveness using a dedicated prototype setup.

Findings

Alignment method is effective in detecting angular misalignments as low as 10 nrad/√Hz.

Experimental results confirm the method's adequacy for VIRGO.

Prototype setup successfully simulates operational conditions.

Abstract

A small fixed-mirror Michelson interferometer has been built in Frascati to experimentally study the alignment method that has been suggested for VIRGO. The experimental results fully confirm the adequacy of the method. The minimum angular misalignment that can be detected in the present set-up is 10 nrad/sqrt{Hz}