1. Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009
Welcome !
EGO : a French Italian consortium
to support Virgo
and European projects for gravitational waves physics
It’s my pleasure to welcome you this morning at EGO for the meeting of INFN commission II. Coming to the site you have certainly already noticed the long arms of the Virgo antenna which tries to detect space-time ripples produced by gravitational waves originating from violent phenomena in the universe. You will be able to discover much more during your visit.
Before hand, let me take a little bit of your time to introduce EGO with its current and medium term program before dreaming to longer term projects.
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

2. Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009
The EGO consortium (1)
EGO: founded in Dec 2000 by CNRS and INFN. It is a Consortium open to new members.
Its mandate is to:
support the Virgo experiment
promote co-operation in the field of the experimental and theoretical gravitational waves research in Europe,
promote R&D useful for the detection of gravitational waves.
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

3. The EGO consortium (2) ~55 EGO staff ~150 Virgo associates EGO Council
STAC Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee
EGO Director
J. COLAS Scientific Director/Virgo Spokesperson
F. FIDECARO
Virgo Collaboration
Administration
F. TOSI
Site & Infrastructure
P. POPOLIZIO
Interferometer operation
F. CARBOGNANI
Computing
S. CORTESE
Technical Coordination for upgrades
H. HEITMANN
Directorate services
~55 EGO staff ~150 Virgo associates
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

4. The Virgo experiment (1)
h = DL/L ~ from ~10 Hz to ~10kHz
A network of GW detectors
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

5. The Virgo experiment (2)
VSR1 9/2007
3/2009
First scientific run May-October 2007
Analysis in common with LIGO
Now : Virgo+ upgrade Second scientific run July 09 till mid 2011
New monolithic suspensions to increase sensitivity at low frequency to be installed in 2010
signal fades as 1/r
The number of observable sources grows as SENSITIVITY3 !
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

6. The Virgo experiment (3)
Current Virgo horizon for NS-NS coalescence
24 million light years
FIRST DETECTION POSSIBLE BUT UNLIKELY
EXPECTED EVENT RATE: ev/yr (NS-NS)
Star map by Richard Powell -
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

7. Some recent Virgo publications
Alessandra Corsi Search for gravitational waves associated with GRB a using the Virgo detector Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) (20pp)
Gianluca Guidi First joint gravitational waves search by the AURIGA-EXPLORER-NAUTILUS-Virgo collaboration Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) (20pp)
F. Bondu A laser with an in-loop frequency stability of 1e-21 on a 100 ms time-scale for gravitational wave detection
L. Bosi Virgo Status Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) (9pp)
I. Fiori Noise studies during the first Virgo science run and after, Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) (8pp)
F. Frasconi VIRGO: a large interferometer for gravitational wave detection started its first scientific run J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 120 (2008) (7pp)
V. Re A cross-correlation method to search for gravitational wave bursts with AURIGA and Virgo Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) (11pp)
Z. Marka Astrophysically triggered searches for gravitational waves: status and prospects Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) (12pp)
H. Heitmann Status of Virgo Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) (8pp)
Lisa Barsotti Lock acquisition of the Virgo gravitational wave detector Interferometer Astroparticle Physics, 30 (2008) 29 (10pp)
Eric Genin In-vacuum optical isolation changes in a Faraday isolator Applied Optics 47 (2008) 5853 (9pp)
Eric Genin The Virgo 3-KM interferometer for gravitational wave detection J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 10 (2008) (9pp)
Detector paper sent to Editorial board!
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

8. Advanced Virgo (1) GOAL:
sensitivity 10x better  look 10x further  Detection rate 1000x larger
LIGO-Virgo network gives direction
Need to be on time !
108 ly
Enhanced LIGO/Virgo+
2009
Virgo/LIGO today
Credit: R.Powell, B.Berger
Adv. LIGO/Adv. Virgo
2014
J. Colas
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009 8

9. Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009
Advanced Virgo (2)
Project status:
Preliminary design released 28/10/2008; Final design to be released May 2009.
Under review by an international committee (B. Barish). Conclusions by end May 2009
In parallel: review by INFN and CNRS; look for new partners
Hope for a positive decision at the July EGO Council meeting
Main milestones
Mid 2009 : Start of project
Fall 2011 : start of installation
Mid 2014 : first lock; start of commissioning. To be on time !
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

10. The Virgo EGO Scientific Forum
a Forum where participating astrophysicists and theorists would contribute to the development of scientific knowledge around Virgo.
a Forum to enlarge the research community around the present Virgo collaboration.
Activities :
VESF schools
Fellowship program
Current chair person : V. Ferrari
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

11. Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009
ET and its design study
EGO infrastructure to coordinate EU projects
ET goal : x10 in sensitivity down to low frequency (1Hz)
ET Science case:
Astrophysics: physical parameters of binary systems; GRB
Relativity: compare wave forms with numerical relativity predictions
Cosmology: H; GW from first instants of the Universe
Astro particle: n mass
A project bringing together the European community
On the ASPERA road map
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

12. ET Working Groups J. Colas M. Punturo H. Lück J. v.d. Brand F. Ricci
Site and infrastructure
Thermal noise of mirrors and suspensions / cryogenics
Optical configuration
Astrophysics issues
Management
J. v.d. Brand
F. Ricci
A. Freise
Sathyaprakash
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

13. Evolution of the GW detectors
´06
´07
´08
´09
´10
´11
´12
´13
´14
´15
´16
´17
´18
´19
´20
´21
´22
Virgo
GEO
LIGO
LISA
E.T.
Virgo+
Advanced Virgo
GEO HF
Hanford
E-LIGO
Advanced LIGO
Livingston
Launch Transfer data DS
PCP
Construction
Comm.
data
Site Prep.
1st Generation
2nd Generation
3rd Gen.
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

14. Have a nice visit And a fruitful meeting
J. Colas
Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009