arXiv subjects

Tomotada Akutsu

Publications and source records attributed to Tomotada Akutsu.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Proof-of-principle demonstration of a Polarization-Circulation Speed Meter

We present the first experimental implementation of a polarization-circulation speed meter. In our experiment, the interferometer was reduced to a single-cavity configuration with all mirrors fixed. A green-locking scheme was employed to stabilize the polarization circulation cavity, and a lock-acquisition procedure was demonstrated to realize speed-meter operation. The system was characterized by measuring the transfer function from a pseudo-displacement signal to the photodetector output, confirming that the device measures the speed of mirror motion. These results support the feasibility of polarization-circulation speed meters and suggest that the control scheme could be extended to more complex configurations, such as Michelson interferometers and suspended-mirror systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Jiggled interferometer: Ground-based gravitational wave detector using rapidly-repeated free-falling test masses

We propose the Jiggled Interferometer (JIGI), a novel ground-based gravitational wave detector employing low-frequency noise mitigation similar to that of space-based detectors. Using rapidly-repeated free-fall test masses, JIGI eliminates seismic and suspension thermal noise during free fall. Compared to the Juggled Interferometer, it offers improved angular stability and avoids tracking lasers. We analyze detrending -- a required step to remove actuation-induced noise -- and show sensitivity gains of about four orders of magnitude in the 0.1-0.3 Hz band, relative to seismic and suspension noise extrapolated from the Cosmic Explorer.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

SILVIA: Ultra-precision formation flying demonstration for space-based interferometry

We propose SILVIA (Space Interferometer Laboratory Voyaging towards Innovative Applications), a mission concept designed to demonstrate ultra-precision formation flying between three spacecraft separated by 100 m. SILVIA aims to achieve sub-micrometer precision in relative distance control by integrating spacecraft sensors, laser interferometry, low-thrust and low-noise micro-propulsion for real-time measurement and control of distances and relative orientations between spacecraft. A 100-meter-scale mission in a near-circular low Earth orbit has been identified as an ideal, cost-effective setting for demonstrating SILVIA, as this configuration maintains a good balance between small relative perturbations and low risk for collision. This mission will fill the current technology gap towards future missions, including gravitational wave observatories such as DECIGO (DECihertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory), designed to detect the primordial gravitational wave background, and high-contrast nulling infrared interferometers like LIFE (Large Interferometer for Exoplanets), designed for direct imaging of thermal emissions from nearby terrestrial planet candidates. The mission concept and its key technologies are outlined, paving the way for the next generation of high-precision space-based observatories.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2025

Initial acquisition requirements for optical cavities in the space gravitational wave antennae DECIGO and B-DECIGO

DECIGO (DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) is a space-based gravitational wave antenna concept targeting the 0.1-10 Hz band. It consists of three spacecraft arranged in an equilateral triangle with 1,000 km sides, forming Fabry-P\'erot cavities between them. A precursor mission, B-DECIGO, is also planned, featuring a smaller 100 km triangle. Operating these cavities requires ultra-precise formation flying, where inter-mirror distance and alignment must be precisely controlled. Achieving this necessitates a sequential improvement in precision using various sensors and actuators, from the deployment of the spacecraft to laser link acquisition and ultimately to the control of the Fabry-P\'erot cavities to maintain resonance. In this paper, we derive the precision requirements at each stage and discuss the feasibility of achieving them. We show that the relative speed between cavity mirrors must be controlled at the sub-micrometer-per-second level and that relative alignment must be maintained at the sub-microradian level to obtain control signals from the Fabry-P\'erot cavities of DECIGO and B-DECIGO.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Modeling of optical scattering from topographic surface measurements of high-quality mirrors

In this paper, we revisit computational methods to obtain an angular profile of optical scattering from a smooth surface, given a two-dimensional map of topographic height errors of the surface. Quick derivations of some traditional equations and relevant references are organized to shorten the search time. A practical data-processing flow of the methods is discussed. As a case study of this flow, the core mirrors of the KAGRA interferometer are examined, and we obtain a representative scattering profile that is easily applicable to ray-tracing simulations.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Control Scheme for Polarization Circulation Speed Meter Using a Dual-Retardation Waveplate

In interferometric gravitational wave detectors, quantum radiation pressure noise, which is a back action of the measurement, will limit their sensitivities at low frequencies. Speed meters are one of the solutions to reduce the back action noise and improve the sensitivities, and furthermore, they can surpass the standard quantum limit over a wide range of frequencies. The Polarization Circulation Speed Meter is the latest incarnation of the speed meter concept in the sense that it requires a slight modification in the conventional interferometer designs; however, its control scheme has not been developed. The main difficulty is the length and alignment control of the cavity formed by the polarization circulation mirror and the input test masses, whose round-trip phase shift should be kept to $π$. In this article, we propose a new control scheme using a dual-retardation waveplate, called Dual-Retardance Control (DRC). In addition, we compare the shot noise level of the DRC to another simpler scheme by dithering. Finally, we design the experimental setup for the demonstration of the DRC and show the expected results through the transfer function measurement.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Improvement of the target sensitivity in DECIGO by optimizing its parameters for quantum noise including the effect of diffraction loss

DECIGO is the future Japanese gravitational wave detector in outer space. We previously set the default design parameters to provide a good target sensitivity to detect the primordial gravitational waves (GWs). However, the updated upper limit of the primordial GWs by the Planck observations motivated us for further optimization of the target sensitivity. Previously, we had not considered optical diffraction loss due to the very long cavity length. In this paper, we optimize various DECIGO parameters by maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), for the primordial GWs to quantum noise including the effects of diffraction loss. We evaluated the power spectrum density for one cluster in DECIGO utilizing the quantum noise of one differential Fabry-Perot interferometer. Then we calculated the SNR by correlating two clusters in the same position. We performed the optimization for two cases: the constant mirror-thickness case and the constant mirror-mass case. As a result, we obtained the SNR dependence on the mirror radius, which also determines various DECIGO parameters. This result is the first step toward optimizing the DECIGO design by considering the practical constraints on the mirror dimension and implementing other noise sources.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Cryogenic suspension design for a kilometer-scale gravitational-wave detector

We report the mirror suspension design for Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope, KAGRA, during bKAGRA Phase 1. Mirror thermal noise is one of the fundamental noises for room-temperature gravitational-wave detectors such as Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Thus, reduction of thermal noise is required for further improvement of their sensitivity. One effective approach for reducing thermal noise is to cool the mirrors. There are many technical challenges that must be overcome to cool the mirrors, such as cryocooler induced vibrations, thermal drift in suspensions, and reduction in duty cycling due to the increased number of potential failure mechanisms. Our mirror suspension has a black coating that makes radiative cooling more efficient. For conduction cooling, we developed ultra high purity aluminum heat links, which yield high thermal conductivity while keeping the spring constant sufficiently small. A unique inclination adjustment system, called moving mass, is used for aligning the mirror orientation in pitch. Photo-reflective displacement sensors, which have a large range, are installed for damping control on marionette recoil mass and intermediate recoil mass. Samarium cobalt magnets are used for coil-magnet actuators to prevent significant change of magnetism between room temperature and cryogenic temperature. In this paper, the design of our first cryogenic payload and its performance during bKAGRA Phase 1 are discussed.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Compact integrated optical sensors and electromagnetic actuators for vibration isolation systems in the gravitational-wave detector KAGRA

This paper reports on the design and characteristics of a compact module integrating an optical displacement sensor and an electromagnetic actuator for use with vibration-isolation systems installed in KAGRA, the 3-km baseline gravitational-wave detector in Japan. In technical concept, the module belongs to a family tree of similar modules called OSEMs, used in other interferometric gravitational-wave detector projects. After the initial test run of KAGRA in 2016, the sensor part, which is a type of slot sensor, was modified by increasing the spacing of the slot from 5 mm to 15 mm to avoid the risk of mechanical interference with the sensor flag. We confirm the sensor performance is comparable to that of the previous design despite the modification. We also confirm the sensor noise is consistent with the theoretical noise budget. The noise level is 0.5 nm/rtHz at 1 Hz and 0.1 nm/rtHz at 10 Hz, and the linear range of the sensor is 0.7 mm or more. We measured the response of the actuator to be 1 N/A, and also measured the resistances and inductances of coils of the actuators to confirm consistency with theory. Coupling coefficients among the different degrees of freedom were also measured and shown to be negligible, varying little between designs. A potential concern about thermal noise contribution due to eddy current loss is discussed. As of 2020, 42 of the modules are in operation at the site.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2020

Current status of space gravitational wave antenna DECIGO and B-DECIGO

Deci-hertz Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (DECIGO) is the future Japanese space mission with a frequency band of 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz. DECIGO aims at the detection of primordial gravitational waves, which could be produced during the inflationary period right after the birth of the universe. There are many other scientific objectives of DECIGO, including the direct measurement of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe, and reliable and accurate predictions of the timing and locations of neutron star/black hole binary coalescences. DECIGO consists of four clusters of observatories placed in the heliocentric orbit. Each cluster consists of three spacecraft, which form three Fabry-Perot Michelson interferometers with an arm length of 1,000 km. Three clusters of DECIGO will be placed far from each other, and the fourth cluster will be placed in the same position as one of the three clusters to obtain the correlation signals for the detection of the primordial gravitational waves. We plan to launch B-DECIGO, which is a scientific pathfinder of DECIGO, before DECIGO in the 2030s to demonstrate the technologies required for DECIGO, as well as to obtain fruitful scientific results to further expand the multi-messenger astronomy.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Mirror actuation design for the interferometer control of the KAGRA gravitational wave telescope

KAGRA is a 3-km cryogenic interferometric gravitational wave telescope located at an underground site in Japan. In order to achieve its target sensitivity, the relative positions of the mirrors of the interferometer must be finely adjusted with attached actuators. We have developed a model to simulate the length control loops of the KAGRA interferometer with realistic suspension responses and various noises for mirror actuation. Using our model, we have designed the actuation parameters to have sufficient force range to acquire lock as well as to control all the length degrees of freedom without introducing excess noise.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

Molecular adsorbed layer formation on cooled mirrors and its impacts on cryogenic gravitational wave telescopes

Cryogenic mirrors have been introduced to the KAGRA gravitational wave telescope in Japan, and are also planned to be used in next-generation gravitational wave telescopes to further improve their sensitivity. Molecular gases inside vacuum chambers adhere to cold mirror surfaces because they lose their kinetic energy when they hit cryogenic surfaces. Finally, a number of adsorbed molecules form an adlayer, which will grow with time. The growing adlayer functions as an optical coating and changes the properties of the underlying mirror, such as reflectance, transmittance, and absorption, which are carefully chosen to maximize the detector sensitivity. The adlayer possibly affects the gravitational wave detector sensitivity. In order to characterize these changes, a high-finesse Fabry--Perot cavity was introduced to a KAGRA cryostat and the finesse of the cavity was monitored for 35 days under cryogenic conditions. We confirmed that the molecular adlayer was formed on a cold mirror and caused an oscillation in the finesse. The real and imaginary parts of the refractive index of the adlayer were $1.26 \pm 0.073$ and $2.2 \times 10^{-7} \pm 1.3 \times 10^{-7} $, respectively. These are considered to be that of $\mathrm{H_2O}$ molecules. The formation rate of the molecular adlayer was 27 $\pm$ 1.9 $\mathrm{nm/day}$. In this paper, we describe theoretical and experimental studies of the formation of a molecular adlayer on cryogenic mirrors. Furthermore, the effects of a molecular adlayer on the quantum noise and the input heat to the test mass are also discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Pre-DECIGO can get the smoking gun to decide the astrophysical or cosmological origin of GW150914-like binary black holes

Pre-DECIGO consists of three spacecraft arranged in an equilateral triangle with 100km arm lengths orbiting 2000km above the surface of the earth. It is hoped that the launch date will be in the late 2020s. Pre-DECIGO has one clear target: binary black holes (BBHs) like GW150914 and GW151226. Pre-DECIGO can detect $\sim 30M_\odot-30M_\odot$ BBH mergers up to redshift $z\sim 30$. The cumulative event rate is $\sim 1.8\times 10^{5}\,{\rm events~yr^{-1}}$ in the Pop III origin model of BBHs like GW150914, and it saturates at $z\sim 10$, while in the primordial BBH (PBBH) model, the cumulative event rate is $ \sim 3\times 10^{4}\,{\rm events~ yr^{-1}}$ at $z=30$ even if only $0.1\%$ of the dark matter consists of PBHs, and it is still increasing at $z=30$. In the Pop I/II model of BBHs, the cumulative event rate is $(3-10)\times10^{5}\,{\rm events~ yr^{-1}}$ and it saturates at $z \sim 6$. We present the requirements on orbit accuracy, drag free techniques, laser power, frequency stability, and interferometer test mass. For BBHs like GW150914 at 1Gpc, SNR$\sim 90$ is achieved with the definition of Pre-DECIGO in the $0.01-100$Hz band. Pre-DECIGO can measure the mass spectrum and the $z$-dependence of the merger rate to distinguish various models of BBHs like GW150914. Pre-DECIGO can also predict the direction of BBHs at $z=0.1$ with an accuracy of $\sim 0.3\,{\rm deg}^2$ and a merging time accuracy of $\sim 1$s at about a day before the merger so that ground-based GW detectors further developed at that time as well as electromagnetic follow-up observations can prepare for the detection of merger in advance. For intermediate mass BBHs at a large redshift $z > 10$, the QNM frequency after the merger can be within the Pre-DECIGO band so that the ringing tail can also be detectable to confirm the Einstein theory of general relativity with SNR$\sim 35$. [abridged]

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Post-selected von Neumann measurement with Hermite-Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian pointer states

Through the von Neumann interaction followed by post-selection, we can extract not only the eigenvalue of an observable of the measured system but also the weak value. In this post-selected von Neumann measurement, the initial pointer state of the measuring device is assumed to be a fundamental Gaussian wave function. By considering the optical implementation of the post-selected von Neumann measurement, higher-order Gaussian modes can be used. In this paper, we consider the Hermite--Gaussian (HG) and Laguerre--Gaussian (LG) modes as pointer states and calculate the average shift of the pointer states of the post-selected von Neumann measurement by assuming the system observable $\hat{A}$ with $\hat{A}^{2}=\hat{I}$ and $\hat{A}^{2}=\hat{A}$ for an arbitrary interaction strength, where $\hat{I}$ represents the identity operator. Our results show that the HG and LG pointer states for a given coupling direction have advantages and disadvantages over the fundamental Gaussian mode in improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We expect that our general treatment of the weak values will be helpful for understanding the connection between weak- and strong-measurement regimes and may be used to propose new experimental setups with higher-order Gaussian beams to investigate further the applications of weak measurement in optical systems such as the optical vortex.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Status of advanced ground-based laser interferometers for gravitational-wave detection

Ground-based laser interferometers for gravitational-wave (GW) detection were first constructed starting 20 years ago and as of 2010 collection of several years' worth of science data at initial design sensitivities was completed. Upgrades to the initial detectors together with construction of brand new detectors are ongoing and feature advanced technologies to improve the sensitivity to GWs. This conference proceeding provides an overview of the common design features of ground-based laser interferometric GW detectors and establishes the context for the status updates of each of the four gravitational-wave detectors around the world: Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo, GEO600 and KAGRA.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2008

Search for a stochastic background of 100-MHz gravitational waves with laser interferometers

This letter reports the results of a search for a stochastic background of gravitational waves (GW) at 100 MHz by laser interferometry. We have developed a GW detector, which is a pair of 75-cm baseline synchronous recycling (resonant recycling) interferometers. Each interferometer has a strain sensitivity of ~ 10^{-16} Hz^{-1/2} at 100 MHz. By cross-correlating the outputs of the two interferometers within 1000 seconds, we found h_{100}^2 Omega_{gw} < 6 times 10^{25} to be an upper limit on the energy density spectrum of the GW background in a 2-kHz bandwidth around 100 MHz, where a flat spectrum is assumed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

Laser-interferometric Detectors for Gravitational Wave Background at 100 MHz : Detector Design and Sensitivity

Recently, observational searches for gravitational wave background (GWB) have developed and given direct and indirect constraints on the energy density of GWB in a broad range of frequencies. These constraints have already rejected some theoretical models of large GWB spectra. However, at 100 MHz, there is no strict upper limit from direct observation, though the indirect limit by He4 abundance due to big-bang nucleosynthesis exists. In this paper, we propose an experiment with laser interferometers searching GWB at 100 MHz. We considered three detector designs and evaluated the GW response functions of a single detector. As a result, we found that, at 100 MHz, the most sensitive detector is the design, a so-called synchronous recycling interferometer, which has better sensitivity than an ordinary Fabry-Perot Michelson interferometer by a factor of 3.3 at 100 MHz. We also give the best sensitivity achievable at 100 MHz with realistic experimental parameters.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

Optimal Location of Two Laser-interferometric Detectors for Gravitational Wave Backgrounds at 100 MHz

Recently, observational searches for gravitational wave background (GWB) have been developed and given constraints on the energy density of GWB in a broad range of frequencies. These constraints have already resulted in the rejection of some theoretical models of relatively large GWB spectra. However, at 100 MHz, there is no strict upper limit from direct observation, though an indirect limit exists due to He4 abundance due to big-bang nucleosynthesis. In our previous paper, we investigated the detector designs that can effectively respond to GW at high frequencies, where the wavelength of GW is comparable to the size of a detector, and found that the configuration, a so-called synchronous-recycling interferometer is best at these sensitivity. In this paper, we investigated the optimal location of two synchronous-recycling interferometers and derived their cross-correlation sensitivity to GWB. We found that the sensitivity is nearly optimized and hardly changed if two coaligned detectors are located within a range 0.2 m, and that the sensitivity achievable in an experiment is far below compared with the constraint previously obtained in experiments.

gr-qc↗