1. Annecy/Dec'04 1 ALLEGRO:status Dec 2004 Warren Johnson, Bill Hamilton, Peter Zhang, Andrew Weber, Damon Nettles, Jon Hanson, Mark Burgamy, Jordan Weaver Louisiana State University Ho Jung Paik, Vol Moody, Andrew Weber University of Maryland Siong Heng Glasgow

2. Annecy/Dec'04 2 ALLEGRO at LSU

3. Annecy/Dec'04 3 Unique Features Near an interferometer (LIGO Livingston Observatory) Able to rotate Very low rate of non-Gaussian noise.

4. Annecy/Dec'04 4 ALLEGRO schematic

5. Annecy/Dec'04 5 Goals of Observing Program Search for bursts, at higher sensitivity, in collaboration with IGEC and LIGO. Search for high frequency stochastic background, in collaboration with LIGO Livingston. (Antenna rotation allows a unique experiment: chopping any stochastic signal. ) (Inspiral sources included in bursts?) (CW searches no longer competitive?)

6. Annecy/Dec'04 6 Observing this year (Had trouble with cryogenics in 2002 and 2003.) Latest attempt at a fix was finished Dec 2003. Worked! Running continuously since Feb 13, 2004. Rotated to IGEC orientation (parallel to European bars) on May 5, 2004. So now have > 200 days available for comparison with NAUTILUS, EXPLORER, and AURIGA. Duty factor >95% and noise improved.

7. Annecy/Dec'04 7 Noise improved

8. Annecy/Dec'04 8 Excellent stability in 2004

9. Annecy/Dec'04 9 New reliable calibrator One plate of capacitor is tightly coupled to bar. Other plate is weakly coupled to the bar, so acts like a free mass. Both plates electrically isolated.

10. Annecy/Dec'04 10 Result We now have a reliable method of absolute calibration of the detector response. Have benefitted greatly from the strong collaboration with Loyola and LSC. Martin McHugh giving paper on calibration later at GWDAW.

11. Annecy/Dec'04 11 Next step: burst analysis, in coincidence with IGEC Need new burst filters, to make best use of the ‘high’ bandwidth, and to remove the lines. Nearly finished. Since the 2 detectors of the Rome Group have also been operating for most of last 6 months: We hope that IGEC can reconstitute itself, agree on a method of data analysis, and confirm or deny the ROG “indications” of GW bursts “from the galactic disk”.

12. Annecy/Dec'04 12 Stochastic Analysis Have used the S2 run data as a complete shakedown for all procedures. Have learned many lessons. The regular stochastic-ALLEGRO telecon has been a crucial, and successful, method to collaborate with the LSC. –Loyola: John Whelan and Martin McHugh –WSU: Sukanta Bose –Glasgow: Harry Ward –Cardiff: Joe Romano Status talk by Whelan later at GWDAW

13. Annecy/Dec'04 13 Wp9

14. Annecy/Dec'04 14 Wp11

15. Annecy/Dec'04 15 Wp15

16. Annecy/Dec'04 16 Underway: construction and tests of new two-mode Maryland transducer, with double SQUID

17. Annecy/Dec'04 17 End

18. Annecy/Dec'04 18 Exploded views showing components

19. Annecy/Dec'04 19 Progress of UM transducer construction Krishna Y. Venkateswara, M. Vol Moody, and Ho Jung Paik Department of Physics University of Maryland, College Park December, 2004

20. Annecy/Dec'04 20 Niobium mass assembly The diaphragms for m 2 and m 3 have been machined to 0.092” and 0.018”, respectively At 300 K, the frequencies are measured to be f 2 = 880 Hz (with the rim mass extrapolated to the antenna mass) and f 3 = 1007 Hz. At 4 K, f 2 is expected to increase to 917 Hz. f 3 is uncertain due to the stress from machining. After heat-treatment, the final mechanical tuning will be done by electropolishing. The frequencies and Q’s will be measured as a function of  before and after the electropolishing.

21. Annecy/Dec'04 21 Electrical circuit The Macor coil form and the Nb insert, which holds the coil form and the double SQUID, were machined. After winding a Nb sensing coil and mounting a Nb capacitor ring, and both were lapped flat. So far the Nb coil has been used as a capacitor plate to pick up the motion while the Nb ring was used to drive it. A single Quantum Design dc SQUID will be coupled to the sensing coil through a superconducting transformer. For future tests at 4 K, the motion will be sensed by the inductive transducer.

22. Annecy/Dec'04 22 Double SQUID tests Testing a copy of the double SQUID system put together by Venante and collaborators from AURIGA group.

23. Annecy/Dec'04 23 Plans Will test full- length wiring effect on SQUID noise Will test complete transducer (ready for drop-in replacement on ALLEGRO) ? Offload tests from Maryland?

24. Annecy/Dec'04 24 Plans Continue running to the end of LIGO S4 run. Warm-up and mount the NEW Maryland transducer, IF we can get it ready in time.