Effects of transients in LIGO suspensions on searches for gravitational waves

Walker, M. and Abbott, T. D. and Aston, S. M. and González, G. and Macleod, D. M. and McIver, J. and Abbott, B. P. and Abbott, R. and Adams, C. and Adhikari, R. X. and Anderson, S. B. and Ananyeva, A. and Appert, S. and Arai, K. and Ballmer, S. W. and Barker, D. and Barr, B. and Barsotti, L. and Bartlett, J. and Bartos, I. and Batch, J. C. and Bell, A. S. and Betzwieser, J. and Billingsley, G. and Birch, J. and Biscans, S. and Biwer, C. and Blair, C. D. and Bork, R. and Brooks, A. F. and Ciani, G. and Clara, F. and Countryman, S. T. and Cowart, M. J. and Coyne, D. C. and Cumming, A. and Cunningham, L. and Danzmann, K. and Da Silva Costa, C. F. and Daw, E. J. and Debra, D. and Derosa, R. T. and Desalvo, R. and Dooley, K. L. and Doravari, S. and Driggers, J. C. and Dwyer, S. E. and Effler, A. and Etzel, T. and Evans, M. and Evans, T. M. and Factourovich, M. and Fair, H. and Fernández Galiana, A. and Fisher, R. P. and Fritschel, P. and Frolov, V. V. and Fulda, P. and Fyffe, M. and Giaime, J. A. and Giardina, K. D. and Goetz, E. and Goetz, R. and Gras, S. and Gray, C. and Grote, H. and Gushwa, K. E. and Gustafson, E. K. and Gustafson, R. and Hall, E. D. and Hammond, G. and Hanks, J. and Hanson, J. and Hardwick, T. and Harry, G. M. and Heintze, M. C. and Heptonstall, A. W. and Hough, J. and Izumi, K. and Jones, R. and Kandhasamy, S. and Karki, S. and Kasprzack, M. and Kaufer, S. and Kawabe, K. and Kijbunchoo, N. and King, E. J. and King, P. J. and Kissel, J. S. and Korth, W. Z. and Kuehn, G. and Landry, M. and Lantz, B. and Lockerbie, N. A. and Lormand, M. and Lundgren, A. P. and Macinnis, M. and Márka, S. and Márka, Z. and Markosyan, A. S. and Maros, E. and Martin, I. W. and Martynov, D. V. and Mason, K. and Massinger, T. J. and Matichard, F. and Mavalvala, N. and McCarthy, R. and McClelland, D. E. and McCormick, S. and McIntyre, G. and Mendell, G. and Merilh, E. L. and Meyers, P. M. and Miller, J. and Mittleman, R. and Moreno, G. and Mueller, G. and Mullavey, A. and Munch, J. and Nuttall, L. K. and Oberling, J. and Oliver, M. and Oppermann, P. and Oram, Richard J. and O'Reilly, B. and Ottaway, D. J. and Overmier, H. and Palamos, J. R. and Paris, H. R. and Parker, W. and Pele, A. and Penn, S. and Phelps, M. and Pierro, V. and Pinto, I. and Principe, M. and Prokhorov, L. G. and Puncken, O. and Quetschke, V. and Quintero, E. A. and Raab, F. J. and Radkins, H. and Raffai, P. and Reid, S. and Reitze, D. H. and Robertson, N. A. and Rollins, J. G. and Roma, V. J. and Romie, J. H. and Rowan, S. and Ryan, K. and Sadecki, T. and Sanchez, E. J. and Sandberg, V. and Savage, R. L. and Schofield, R. M.S. and Sellers, D. and Shaddock, D. A. and Shaffer, T. J. and Shapiro, B. and Shawhan, P. and Shoemaker, D. H. and Sigg, D. and Slagmolen, B. J.J. and Smith, B. and Smith, J. R. and Sorazu, B. and Staley, A. and Strain, K. A. and Tanner, D. B. and Taylor, R. and Thomas, M. and Thomas, P. and Thorne, K. A. and Thrane, E. and Torrie, C. I. and Traylor, G. and Tuyenbayev, D. and Vajente, G. and Valdes, G. and Van Veggel, A. A. and Vecchio, A. and Veitch, P. J. and Venkateswara, K. and Vo, T. and Vorvick, C. and Ward, R. L. and Warner, J. and Weaver, B. and Weiss, R. and Weßels, P. and Willke, B. and Wipf, C. C. and Worden, J. and Wu, G. and Yamamoto, H. and Yancey, C. C. and Yu, Hang and Yu, Haocun and Zhang, L. and Zucker, M. E. and Zweizig, J. (2017) Effects of transients in LIGO suspensions on searches for gravitational waves. Review of Scientific Instruments, 88 (12). 124501. ISSN 0034-6748 (https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5000264)

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Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the transient behavior of the Advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) suspensions used to seismically isolate the optics. We have characterized the transients in the longitudinal motion of the quadruple suspensions during Advanced LIGO's first observing run. Propagation of transients between stages is consistent with modeled transfer functions, such that transient motion originating at the top of the suspension chain is significantly reduced in amplitude at the test mass. We find that there are transients seen by the longitudinal motion monitors of quadruple suspensions, but they are not significantly correlated with transient motion above the noise floor in the gravitational wave strain data, and therefore do not present a dominant source of background noise in the searches for transient gravitational wave signals. Using the suspension transfer functions, we compared the transients in a week of gravitational wave strain data with transients from a quadruple suspension. Of the strain transients between 10 and 60 Hz, 84% are loud enough that they would have appeared above the sensor noise in the top stage quadruple suspension monitors if they had originated at that stage at the same frequencies. We find no significant temporal correlation with the suspension transients in that stage, so we can rule out suspension motion originating at the top stage as the cause of those transients. However, only 3.2% of the gravitational wave strain transients are loud enough that they would have been seen by the second stage suspension sensors, and none of them are above the sensor noise levels of the penultimate stage. Therefore, we cannot eliminate the possibility of transient noise in the detectors originating in the intermediate stages of the suspension below the sensing noise.

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