Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Detector : The Current Status of the TAMA Project

概要

論文の詳細を見る
Laser interferometers have been considered the most promising means for detecting gravitational waves with a possibility of opening a new astronomy in the future, that is, the gravitational-wave astronomy. There are at present several on-going projects in the world for building medium- to large-scale (300m to 4km) laser interferometer gravitational wave detectors. TAMA is the Japanese project which is making the rapidest progress among those projects. Its detector, TAMA300 with an arm length of 300m employs a recycled Fabry-Perot Michelson interferometer illuminated by a 10 W laser with a triangular mode cleaner. So far the whole interferometer (without recycling) has been successfully opereated and the preliminary data have been taken. TAMA300 is currently being adjusted/refined to reach a reasonable sensitivity. The recycling mirror will be then installed in the detector to further improve the sensitivity. There will be even a slight chance that TAMA300 could detect gravitational waves for the first time in the world.
理論物理学刊行会の論文
2000-01-31