Abstract

For The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) our group studies the thermal loss of different mirror coatings/amorphous materials to better understand the causes of Brownian thermal noise. Thermal noise is modeled with a collection of thousands of two-level systems and thus understanding these systems is crucial. Unfortunately, there are many physical and underlying atomic features that may be responsible for thermal noise, especially at room temperature. Here we will use stability selection to understand what features are the most important.

Bio

Alec Mishkin is a sixth year graduate student in the physics department. He uses classical molecular dynamics and computational techniques to model and study different coating materials for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

12:00AM

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