Article
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Lightsaber: A Simulator of the Angular Sensing and Control System in LIGO
Version 1
: Received: 21 July 2021 / Approved: 23 July 2021 / Online: 23 July 2021 (11:09:23 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Andric, T.; Harms, J. Lightsaber: A Simulator of the Angular Sensing and Control System in LIGO. Galaxies 2021, 9, 61. Andric, T.; Harms, J. Lightsaber: A Simulator of the Angular Sensing and Control System in LIGO. Galaxies 2021, 9, 61.
Abstract
The suspended test masses of gravitational-wave (GW) detectors require precise alignment to be able to operate the detector stably and with high sensitivity. This includes the continuous counter-acting of seismic disturbances, which, below a few Hertz, are not sufficiently reduced by the seismic isolation system. The residual angular motion of suspended test masses is further suppressed by the Angular Sensing and Control (ASC) system. However, in doing so, the angular motion can be enhanced by the ASC at higher frequencies where the seismic isolation system is very effective. This has led to sensitivity limitations between about 10 Hz and 25 Hz of the LIGO detectors in past observation runs. The observed ASC noise was larger than simple models predict, which means that more accurate detector models and new simulation tools are required. We present Lightsaber, a new time-domain simulator of the ASC in LIGO. The simulation is a nonlinear simulation of the optomechanical system consisting of the high-power cavity laser beam and the last two stages of suspension in LIGO including the ASC. The main noise inputs are power fluctuations of the laser beam at the input of the arm cavities, read-out noise of sensors used for the ASC, displacement noise from the suspension platforms, and noise introduced by the suspension damping loops. While the plant simulation uses local degrees of freedom of individual suspension systems, the control is applied on a global angular basis, which requires a conversion between the local and global bases for sensing and actuation. Some of the studies that can be done with this simulation concern mis-centering of the beam-spot (BS) position on the test masses, the role of laser power fluctuations for angular dynamics, and the role of the various nonlinear dynamics.
Keywords
Angular Sensing and Control; optomechanical coupling; time domain simulation; LIGO
Subject
Physical Sciences, Acoustics
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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