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

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

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

The Virgo experiment (1) h = DL/L ~ 10-21 from ~10 Hz to ~10kHz A network of GW detectors J. Colas Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

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

The Virgo experiment (3) Current Virgo horizon for NS-NS coalescence 24 million light years FIRST DETECTION POSSIBLE BUT UNLIKELY EXPECTED EVENT RATE: 0.01-0.1 ev/yr (NS-NS) Star map by Richard Powell - http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/index.html J. Colas Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

Some recent Virgo publications Alessandra Corsi Search for gravitational waves associated with GRB 050915a using the Virgo detector Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) 225001 (20pp) Gianluca Guidi First joint gravitational waves search by the AURIGA-EXPLORER-NAUTILUS-Virgo collaboration Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) 205007 (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) 184001 (9pp) I. Fiori Noise studies during the first Virgo science run and after, Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) 184003 (8pp) F. Frasconi VIRGO: a large interferometer for gravitational wave detection started its first scientific run J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 120 (2008) 032007 (7pp) V. Re A cross-correlation method to search for gravitational wave bursts with AURIGA and Virgo Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) 114046 (11pp) Z. Marka Astrophysically triggered searches for gravitational waves: status and prospects Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) 114051 (12pp) H. Heitmann Status of Virgo Class. Quantum Grav. 25 (2008) 114045 (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) 064009 (9pp) Detector paper sent to Editorial board! J. Colas Commission II meeting – 7 March 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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