INFN fellow reports on NSF/LIGO Summer Exchange Program

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Nov 26, 2016/ Off Comments / in Announcement / by
mass

Numerical simulation showing Advanced LIGO End Test Mass deformations due to the so called drumhead mode.

 

The Virgo team within TIFPA, led by prof. G. Prodi, is well known for having taken part to the revolutionary observation of gravitational waves announced by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration last February. Fresh on the heels of that important achievement, the group was awarded the INFN - NSF/LIGO Summer Exchange Program scholarship, offered each year by INFN to four outstanding students for a research experience in one of the American LIGO groups. The former master student selected was Nicola De Lillo, supervised by M. Cavaglià , faculty at University of Mississippi and Assistant Spoken Person of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Nicola spent ten exciting weeks at LIGO Livingston Observatory, one of the two American Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave detectors, located in Louisiana (USA).

One of the main issues of such detector are the undesired bulk deformations of the test masses caused by the actuation forces of the Photon Calibrator, the most common apparatus used nowadays for the calibration of gravitational wave detectors.
Joining the LIGO Calibration Group, Nicola carried out numerical simulations for the study of such deformations, setting the basis for a systematic method to take this effect under control in the calibration procedure.

Nicola says: "The achievement of these results was only possible  thanks to the huge support received from the TIFPA Center and the group of professor Prodi. I am grateful to all of them for pushing ahead their students in the scientific world."

This research has already produced results leading to a publication in Review of Scientific Instruments; further progresses are expected in the next months.




The VIRGO team. From Left to right: Nicola De Lillo, Giovanni Prodi, Maria Concetta Tringali, Michele Valentini, Matteo Di Giovanni.

The VIRGO team within TIFPA. From left to right: Nicola De Lillo, Giovanni Prodi, Maria Concetta Tringali, Michele Valentini, Matteo Di Giovanni. The team also includes Matteo Leonardi and Shubhanshu Tiwari.