Speaker
Description
Gravitational-wave detectors (GWDs) require extremely sensitive and compact sensors to detect and correct for seismic vibration. For future detectors and upgrades of current ones, even the best commercial sensors do not meet the sensitivity requirements. The most critical parts of the Einstein Telescope (ET) will operate at cryogenic temperatures. We could make our current interferometric sensing and coil–magnet actuation cryo-compatible, but superconducting solutions thrive —rather than merely survive— in the cold.
Using the Meissner effect, these devices enable extremely precise actuation and sensing that can be deployed near the suspended mirrors of the ET. There, they can monitor or actively mitigate tiny, unwanted vibrations. In addition to deployment in terrestrial GWDs, an array of superconducting inertial sensors could be installed in a permanently shadowed lunar crater with stable cryogenic temperatures, forming the Lunar Gravitational-wave Antenna (LGWA). I will present the latest development on coil design and fabrication and what their impact can be in ET and LGWA.