Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors and Detection: Arm Length Stabilization and Directed Searches for Isolated Neutron Stars.

Abstract

The equations of General Relativity admit wave solutions, known as gravitational waves. Gravitational waves have been indirectly detected through observations of the decay of binary neutron star orbits, but have yet to be observed directly. Advanced LIGO aims to make the first direct detection of gravitational waves using a network of two interferometric gravitational wave detectors. Observations of gravitational waves would not only verify an important prediction of general relativity, but also provide information about some of the most extreme environments in the universe, such as supernovae, black holes, and neutron stars. This thesis covers issues related to both the operation of the Advanced LIGO interferometer and its potential use for neutron star multimessenger astronomy. Principal results include a method for dynamic characterization of long Fabry-Perot optical cavities, the implementation of an auxiliary differential wavefront sensing subsystem for Advanced LIGO arm locking, and the development of a search method for gravitational waves from unassociated gamma-ray emitters in the Fermi 3FGL catalog.