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LIGO consists of two detector facilities, one located at Hanford Reservation, Washington and the other at Livingston Parish, Louisiana. Each installation is L-shaped with 4 km (2.5 mile) long arms, enclosing along its entire length an ultra-high-vacuum stainless steel beam tube, approximately 1.2 meters (4 feet) in diameter, and interconnecting chambers. The beam tube provides a path for the propagation of laser beams between the chambers.
The LIGO installation at Hanford consists of five stations connected by beam tube modules (each 2 km or 1.25 miles in length). The corner station, two end stations, and two mid stations house and provide access to the vacuum system and interferometer components, vacuum equipment, and instruments. Full-length interferometers are made up of components installed in the corner stations and end stations; half-length interferometer components are installed at corner station and mid stations. The installation at Livingston is similar to that of Hanford except that it has a full-length interferometer only, thus no mid stations, and the corner station is smaller. Last modified October 2, 2001 |
