January 2021
GEO600 reaches 6 dB of squeezing
German-British instrument mitigates quantum noise effects better than any gravitational-wave detector before
Gravitational waves cause tiny length changes in the kilometer-size detectors of the international network (GEO600, KAGRA, LIGO, Virgo). The instruments use laser light to detect these effects and are so sensitive that they are fundamentally limited by quantum mechanics. This limit manifests as an ever-present background noise which can never be fully removed and which overlaps with gravitational-wave signals. But one can change the noise properties – using a process called squeezing – such that it does not disturb the measurements as much.
Now, GEO600 researchers have achieved the strongest squeezing ever seen in a gravitational-wave detector. They lowered the quantum mechanical noise by up to a factor of two. This is a big step to third-generation detectors such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer. The GEO600 team is confident to reach even better squeezing in the future.
