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A preliminary discussion of Dulkyn interferometer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2000
Abstract
The Dulkyn interferometer in Kazan is an active ring laser where the light
propagates along two different paths. It has been developed with the idea
that it could detect low frequency gravitational waves on Earth.
Considering Dulkyn as a detector of periodic strains of order of
h ~ 10−22 at low frequencies (10−3 Hz−10−5 Hz) we
calculate that 30 W is the order of magnitude of the optical power
necessary to beat the photon noise in the case of a long observation time
(T = 4 months) and a reasonable signal to noise ratio (r = 3). We estimate
that the displacement noise of the mirrors must not exceed 5×10−19m/$\sqrt{{Hz}}$.
Dulkyn is also sensitive to accelerations and rotations. The acceleration
noise does not seem to be troublesome
($\widetilde{g}\lesssim 0.1{m}
{s}^{-2}/\sqrt{{Hz}}$
), but the angular velocity noise must be
less than 5×10−11 s−1/$\sqrt{{Hz}}$
.
The maximum strain (10−22) is obtained with free (pendulous) mirrors.
Out of resonance, the strain is many orders of magnitude smaller when the
mirrors are fixed on a rigid support. Such a case would rule out the
possibility of a detection. As a conclusion we emphasize that the Dulkyn
design does not bring any decisive improvement for the detection of low
frequency gravitational waves on Earth.
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- © EDP Sciences, 2000