Group seminar at MPQ and Zoom: SRF Cavities for Gravitational Wave Detection

Lars Fischer, University of Hamburg, Germany
Group seminar at MPQ lecture hall and Zoom
Friday, 14 June, 09:00am (MEZ)

With the first detection of gravitational waves (GW) in 2015 by the LIGO collaboration a new era of astronomical observation began. Current GW detectors search for signals in the audio- and nano-Hertz-band with missions planned in the milli-Hertz frequency regime. However, high-frequency GW above the audio-band remain unexplored to date. In this talk I will present a project collaboration of DESY and FNAL based on superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities to search for GW with frequencies in the range from kHz up to GHz. I analyze the GW-cavity interaction using simulations of a prototype cavity and show theoretical sensitivities. Additionally, I estimate the capabilities of a heterodyne cavity measurement scheme for GHz-GW and present prospects of quantum enhanced search capabilities.