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After decades of research, physicists now know how to detect Einstein's gravitational waves. Advanced gravitational wave detectors, the most sensitive instruments ever created, will be almost certain of detecting the births of black holes throughout the Universe. This book describes the physics of gravitational waves and their detectors. The book begins by introducing the physics of gravitational wave detection and the likely sources of detectable waves. Case studies on the first generation of large scale gravitational wave detectors introduce the technology and set the scene for a review of the experimental issues in creating advanced detectors in which the instrument's sensitivity is limited by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The book covers lasers, thermal noise, vibration isolation, interferometer control and stabilisation against opto-acoustic instabilities. This is a valuable reference for graduate students and researchers in physics and astrophysics entering this field.

Astronomical instruments. --- Gravitational waves --- Laser interferometers. --- Gravimeters (Geophysical instruments) --- Gravimeter (Geophysical instrument) --- Gravity balances --- Gravity meters --- Geophysical instruments --- Laser interferometer --- Interferometers --- Astronomy --- Instruments, Astronomical --- Optical instruments --- Physical instruments --- Scientific apparatus and instruments --- Space optics --- Detection --- Instruments. --- Instruments --- Gravitational radiation --- Gravity waves (Astrophysics) --- General relativity (Physics) --- Gravitational fields --- Radiation --- Waves --- Measurement

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The work in this thesis was a part of the experiment of squeezed light injection into the LIGO interferometer. The work first discusses the detailed design of the squeezed light source which would be used for the experiment. The specific design is the doubly-resonant, traveling-wave bow-tie cavity squeezed light source with a new modified coherent sideband locking technique. The thesis describes the properties affecting the squeezing magnitudes and offers solutions which improve the gain. The first part also includes the detailed modeling of the back-scattering noise of a traveling Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO). In the second part, the thesis discusses the LIGO Squeezed Light Injection Experiment, undertaken to test squeezed light injection into a 4km interferometric gravitational wave detector. The results show the first ever measurement of squeezing enhancement in a full-scale suspended gravitational wave interferometer with Fabry-Perot arms. Further, it showed that the presence of a squeezed-light source added no additional noise in the low frequency band. The result was the best sensitivity achieved by any gravitational wave detector. The thesis is very well organized with the adequate theoretical background including basics of Quantum Optics, Quantum noise pertaining to gravitational wave detectors in various configurations, along with extensive referencing necessary for the experimental set-up. For any non-experimental scientist, this introduction is a very useful and enjoyable reading. The author is the winner of the 2013 GWIC Theses Prize.

Physics. --- Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory. --- Quantum Optics. --- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology. --- Astronomy. --- Physique --- Astronomie --- Physics --- Physical Sciences & Mathematics --- Atomic Physics --- Laser interferometers. --- Laser interferometry. --- Gravitational waves. --- Gravitational radiation --- Gravity waves (Astrophysics) --- Laser interferometer --- Gravitation. --- Astrophysics. --- Cosmology. --- Quantum optics. --- General relativity (Physics) --- Gravitational fields --- Radiation --- Waves --- Interferometry --- Interferometers --- Astronomical physics --- Astronomy --- Cosmic physics --- Optics --- Photons --- Quantum theory --- Field theory (Physics) --- Matter --- Antigravity --- Centrifugal force --- Relativity (Physics) --- Properties