On 4-10th of July, AstroCeNT team members (prof. Tomasz Bulik, dr Mariusz Suchenek and Mateusz Pietrzak) visited the VIRGO detector in order to contribute to the Newtonian-noise cancellation system work.
The main purpose of that trip was to install a network of 38 infrasound microphones that have been designed and tested at AstroCeNT. The goal of the installation is to monitor the infrasound field in order to locate sources of noise and minimize their influence on the gravitational wave detector.
The VIRGO interferometer is a large interferometer designed to detect gravitational waves. It is part of a scientific collaboration of laboratories from six countries: Italy, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary and Spain. Our team cooperates with VIRGO from the very beginning of AstroCeNT’s existence.
“Gravitational waves are a new kind of signal that we are able to pick up from outer space. This signal carries unique information that cannot be obtained by other methods, because the gravitational wave is practically undamped. That is why it is so important to be able to record this information with minimal distortion. And that is why the development and production of infrasound microphones that we have carried out is so important to science”, says Dr Mariusz Suchenek, the Leader of the Electronics and Data Acquisition and Processing Group.
The trip of scientists to VIRGO was financed by the DarkWave project (Grant agreement ID: 952480).
More about project: Professor Tomasz Bulik: “Our infrasound sensors are a product that will find its niche on the market”
