Status of the CLIO project

The CLIO project involves the Cryogenic Laser Interferometer Observatory (CLIO) detector complex for gravitational wave detection and the Kamioka Laser Interferometric Strainmeter for the acquisition of geophysical data. CLIO has been constructed to demonstrate the feasibility of a future project, the Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope (LCGT). It will utilize the low seismic and stable environment of the Kamioka mine as well as sapphire mirrors and suspension fibres at low temperature to reduce thermal noise. We designed CLIO to have a noise level limited by the thermal noise of sapphire mirrors and sapphire suspension fibres, which vary from 3 × 10−19 m Hz−1/2 at 300 K to 2 × 10−20 m Hz−1/2 at 20 K around 100 Hz. The strainmeter has already succeeded in monitoring the Earth's tidal motion with a strain sensitivity of 2 × 10−12. The seismic noise veto between these same-scale interferometers is expected to provide an effective means of data selection for the gravitational wave signal analysis, and the ground motion data obtained by the strainmeter will help to maintain the stable operation of CLIO.