Quantum Optics Seminar by Michèle Heurs

Non-classical laser interferometry for gravitational wave astronomy

The announcement of the first direct detection of gravitational waves in February of this year has heralded the beginning of the new era of gravitational wave astronomy. It opens a new window to the universe, and will help reveal its secrets, inaccessible to astronomy in the electromagnetic spectrum and neutrino astronomy.

For routine astronomy, however, we need ever-improving detector sensitivity for higher detection rates, which means we need to go beyond the current-day advanced detectors. This calls for innovative ways to combat both technical noise sources and the eventually limiting contributions caused by quantum noise within the detector.

In this seminar I will present recent results and on-going experiments that offer new ways of dealing with existing technical challenges typical for the field of interferometric gravitational wave detection, and I will also introduce a novel quantum noise reduction scheme that works towards improving the sensitivity of future generation gravitational wave observatories.