arXiv subjects

A. J. Weinstein

Publications and source records attributed to A. J. Weinstein.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

Template-based Gravitational-Wave Echoes Search Using Bayesian Model Selection

The ringdown of the gravitational-wave signal from a merger of two black holes has been suggested as a probe of the structure of the remnant compact object, which may be more exotic than a black hole. It has been pointed out that there will be a train of echoes in the late-time ringdown stage for different types of exotic compact objects. In this paper, we present a template-based search methodology using Bayesian statistics to search for echoes of gravitational waves. Evidence for the presence or absence of echoes in gravitational-wave events can be established by performing Bayesian model selection. The Occam factor in Bayesian model selection will automatically penalize the more complicated model that echoes are present in gravitational-wave strain data because of its higher degree of freedom to fit the data. We find that the search methodology was able to identify gravitational-wave echoes with Abedi et al.'s echoes waveform model about 82.3% of the time in simulated Gaussian noise in the Advanced LIGO and Virgo network and about 61.1% of the time in real noise in the first observing run of Advanced LIGO with $\geq 5σ$ significance. Analyses using this method are performed on the data of Advanced LIGO's first observing run, and we find no statistical significant evidence for the detection of gravitational-wave echoes. In particular, we find $<1σ$ combined evidence of the three events in Advanced LIGO's first observing run. The analysis technique developed in this paper is independent of the waveform model used, and can be used with different parametrized echoes waveform models to provide more realistic evidence of the existence of echoes from exotic compact objects.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Quantifying error and leakage in an encoded Si/SiGe triple-dot qubit

Quantum computation requires qubits that satisfy often-conflicting criteria, including scalable control and long-lasting coherence. One approach to creating a suitable qubit is to operate in an encoded subspace of several physical qubits. Though such encoded qubits may be particularly susceptible to leakage out of their computational subspace, they can be insensitive to certain noise processes and can also allow logical control with a single type of entangling interaction while maintaining favorable features of the underlying physical system. Here we demonstrate a qubit encoded in a subsystem of three coupled electron spins confined in gated, isotopically enhanced silicon quantum dots. Using a modified "blind" randomized benchmarking protocol that determines both computational and leakage errors, we show that unitary operations have an average total error of 0.35%, with 0.17% of that coming from leakage driven by interactions with substrate nuclear spins. This demonstration utilizes only the voltage-controlled exchange interaction for qubit manipulation and highlights the operational benefits of encoded subsystems, heralding the realization of high-quality encoded multi-qubit operations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Reconstructing the calibrated strain signal in the Advanced LIGO detectors

Advanced LIGO's raw detector output needs to be calibrated to compute dimensionless strain h(t). Calibrated strain data is produced in the time domain using both a low-latency, online procedure and a high-latency, offline procedure. The low-latency h(t) data stream is produced in two stages, the first of which is performed on the same computers that operate the detector's feedback control system. This stage, referred to as the front-end calibration, uses infinite impulse response (IIR) filtering and performs all operations at a 16384 Hz digital sampling rate. Due to several limitations, this procedure currently introduces certain systematic errors in the calibrated strain data, motivating the second stage of the low-latency procedure, known as the low-latency gstlal calibration pipeline. The gstlal calibration pipeline uses finite impulse response (FIR) filtering to apply corrections to the output of the front-end calibration. It applies time-dependent correction factors to the sensing and actuation components of the calibrated strain to reduce systematic errors. The gstlal calibration pipeline is also used in high latency to recalibrate the data, which is necessary due mainly to online dropouts in the calibrated data and identified improvements to the calibration models or filters.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2017

Observing Gravitational Waves with a Single Detector

A major challenge of any search for gravitational waves is to distinguish true astrophysical signals from those of terrestrial origin. Gravitational-wave experiments therefore make use of multiple detectors, considering only those signals which appear in coincidence in two or more instruments. It is unclear, however, how to interpret loud gravitational-wave candidates observed when only one detector is operational. In this paper, we demonstrate that the observed rate of binary black hole mergers can be leveraged in order to make confident detections of gravitational-wave signals with one detector alone. We quantify detection confidences in terms of the probability $P(S)$ that a signal candidate is of astrophysical origin. We find that, at current levels of instrumental sensitivity, loud signal candidates observed with a single Advanced LIGO detector can be assigned $P(S)\gtrsim0.4$. In the future, Advanced LIGO may be able to observe single-detector events with confidences exceeding $P(S)\sim90\%$.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2016

Validating gravitational-wave detections: The Advanced LIGO hardware injection system

Hardware injections are simulated gravitational-wave signals added to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The detectors' test masses are physically displaced by an actuator in order to simulate the effects of a gravitational wave. The simulated signal initiates a control-system response which mimics that of a true gravitational wave. This provides an end-to-end test of LIGO's ability to observe gravitational waves. The gravitational-wave analyses used to detect and characterize signals are exercised with hardware injections. By looking for discrepancies between the injected and recovered signals, we are able to characterize the performance of analyses and the coupling of instrumental subsystems to the detectors' output channels. This paper describes the hardware injection system and the recovery of injected signals representing binary black hole mergers, a stochastic gravitational wave background, spinning neutron stars, and sine-Gaussians.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2016

Improving LIGO calibration accuracy by tracking and compensating for slow temporal variations

Calibration of the second-generation LIGO interferometric gravitational-wave detectors employs a method that uses injected periodic modulations to track and compensate for slow temporal variations in the differential length response of the instruments. These detectors utilize feedback control loops to maintain resonance conditions by suppressing differential arm length variations. We describe how the sensing and actuation functions of these servo loops are parameterized and how the slow variations in these parameters are quantified using the injected modulations. We report the results of applying this method to the LIGO detectors and show that it significantly reduces systematic errors in their calibrated outputs.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2016

The Advanced LIGO Photon Calibrators

The two interferometers of the Laser Interferometry Gravitaional-wave Observatory (LIGO) recently detected gravitational waves from the mergers of binary black hole systems. Accurate calibration of the output of these detectors was crucial for the observation of these events, and the extraction of parameters of the sources. The principal tools used to calibrate the responses of the second-generation (Advanced) LIGO detectors to gravitational waves are systems based on radiation pressure and referred to as Photon Calibrators. These systems, which were completely redesigned for Advanced LIGO, include several significant upgrades that enable them to meet the calibration requirements of second-generation gravitational wave detectors in the new era of gravitational-wave astronomy. We report on the design, implementation, and operation of these Advanced LIGO Photon Calibrators that are currently providing fiducial displacements on the order of $10^{-18}$ m/$\sqrt{\textrm{Hz}}$ with accuracy and precision of better than 1 %.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2016

Quantum nondemolition measurement of mechanical squeezed state beyond the 3 dB limit

We use a reservoir engineering technique based on two-tone driving to generate and stabilize a quantum squeezed state of a micron-scale mechanical oscillator in a microwave optomechanical system. Using an independent backaction evading measurement to directly quantify the squeezing, we observe $4.7\pm0.9$ dB of squeezing below the zero-point level, surpassing the 3 dB limit of standard parametric squeezing techniques. Our measurements also reveal evidence for an additional mechanical parametric effect. The interplay between this effect and the optomechanical interaction enhances the amount of squeezing obtained in the experiment.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Quantum squeezing of motion in a mechanical resonator

As a result of the quantum, wave-like nature of the physical world, a harmonic oscillator can never be completely at rest. Even in the quantum ground state, its position will always have fluctuations, called the zero-point motion. Although the zero-point fluctuations are unavoidable, they can be manipulated. In this work, using microwave frequency radiation pressure, we both prepare a micron-scale mechanical system in a state near the quantum ground state and then manipulate its thermal fluctuations to produce a stationary, quadrature-squeezed state. We deduce that the variance of one motional quadrature is 0.80 times the zero-point level, or 1 dB of sub-zero-point squeezing. This work is relevant to the quantum engineering of states of matter at large length scales, the study of decoherence of large quantum systems, and for the realization of ultra-sensitive sensing of force and motion.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

An effectual template bank for the detection of gravitational waves from inspiralling compact binaries with generic spins

We report the construction of a three-dimensional template bank for the search for gravitational waves from inspiralling binaries consisting of spinning compact objects. The parameter space consists of two dimensions describing the mass parameters and one "reduced-spin" parameter, which describes the secular (non-precessing) spin effects in the waveform. The template placement is based on an efficient stochastic algorithm and makes use of the semi-analytical computation of a metric in the parameter space. We demonstrate that for "low-mass" ($m_1 + m_2 \lesssim 12\,M_\odot$) binaries, this template bank achieves effective fitting factors $\sim0.92$--$0.99$ towards signals from generic spinning binaries in the advanced detector era over the entire parameter space of interest (including binary neutron stars, binary black holes, and black hole-neutron star binaries). This provides a powerful and viable method for searching for gravitational waves from generic spinning low-mass compact binaries. Under the assumption that spin magnitudes of black-holes [neutron-stars] are uniformly distributed between 0--0.98 [0 -- 0.4] and spin angles are isotropically distributed, the expected improvement in the average detection volume (at a fixed signal-to-noise-ratio threshold) of a search using this reduced-spin bank is $\sim20-52\%$, as compared to a search using a non-spinning bank.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Observation and interpretation of motional sideband asymmetry in a quantum electro-mechanical device

Quantum electro-mechanical systems offer a unique opportunity to probe quantum noise properties in macroscopic devices, properties which ultimately stem from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. A simple example of this is expected to occur in a microwave parametric transducer, where mechanical motion generates motional sidebands corresponding to the up and down frequency-conversion of microwave photons. Due to quantum vacuum noise, the rates of these processes are expected to be unequal. We measure this fundamental imbalance in a microwave transducer coupled to a radio-frequency mechanical mode, cooled near the ground state of motion. We also discuss the subtle origin of this imbalance: depending on the measurement scheme, the imbalance is most naturally attributed to the quantum fluctuations of either the mechanical mode or of the electromagnetic field.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Mechanically Detecting and Avoiding the Quantum Fluctuations of a Microwave Field

During the theoretical investigation of the ultimate sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors through the 1970's and '80's, it was debated whether quantum fluctuations of the light field used for detection, also known as photon shot noise, would ultimately produce a force noise which would disturb the detector and limit the sensitivity. Carlton Caves famously answered this question with "They do." With this understanding came ideas how to avoid this limitation by giving up complete knowledge of the detector's motion. In these back-action evading (BAE) or quantum non-demolition (QND) schemes, one manipulates the required quantum measurement back-action by placing it into a component of the motion which is unobserved and dynamically isolated. Using a superconducting, electro-mechanical device, we realize a sensitive measurement of a single motional quadrature with imprecision below the zero-point fluctuations of motion, detect both the classical and quantum measurement back-action, and demonstrate BAE avoiding the quantum back-action from the microwave photons by 9 dB. Further improvements of these techniques are expected to provide a practical route to manipulate and prepare a squeezed state of motion with mechanical fluctuations below the quantum zero-point level, which is of interest both fundamentally and for the detection of very weak forces.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Searching for gravitational waves from binary coalescence

We describe the implementation of a search for gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences in LIGO and Virgo data. This all-sky, all-time, multi-detector search for binary coalescence has been used to search data taken in recent LIGO and Virgo runs. The search is built around a matched filter analysis of the data, augmented by numerous signal consistency tests designed to distinguish artifacts of non-Gaussian detector noise from potential detections. We demonstrate the search performance using Gaussian noise and data from the fifth LIGO science run and demonstrate that the signal consistency tests are capable of mitigating the effect of non-Gaussian noise and providing a sensitivity comparable to that achieved in Gaussian noise.

gr-qc↗