- Open Access
Scattered light noise at LIGO Livingston Observatory during the fourth observation run
APS Open Sci. 1, 000159 – Published 2 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tb1c-s6g1
Abstract
Scattered light is one of the most common sources of noise in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave observatories (LIGO). Light scattering is a highly nonlinear process through which motion at low frequencies gets up-converted and creates noise in a higher-frequency band in the detector data. From the beginning of the fourth observation run, many glitches appeared in the data of LIGO Livingston detector in the frequency range 10–40 Hz, and the morphology of these glitches suggested that they were produced by scattered light. From our analysis, we identified two different populations of scattered light glitches, one group having higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than the other. The glitches of the high-SNR group were solely modulated by microseismic ground motion (ground motion in 0.1–1.0 Hz), and in this paper, we present models of possible coupling mechanisms for these glitches. We also present results of a statistical correlation analysis based on our models, which indicates that the microseismic ground motion at the corner station along the X direction is the one most correlated with the noise that creates these high-SNR glitches. After installing baffles very close to the test mass mirrors, we have noticed a significant reduction in the rate and SNR of these glitches. The low-SNR glitches were primarily modulated by high-frequency (10–30 Hz) vertical ground motion at the corner station, and this motion was coupling through a specific vacuum chamber at the corner station. After installing an additional seismic isolation platform in that vacuum chamber, these glitches have disappeared.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
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