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GRAVITHELIUM: A KEY TECHNOLOGY FOR THE EINSTEIN TELESCOPE
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Steffen Grohmann, a specialist in refrigeration and cryogenics, is developing a key technology for the Einstein Telescope (ET), the planned next-generation European gravitational wave detector, at the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics and Refrigeration (TTK) and has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant worth almost 3.4 million euros. The GRAVITHELIUM project aims to develop ultra-low noise cooling for the mirrors of the cryogenic low-frequency laser interferometer in order to exploit its sensitivity to its fundamental limits. If it succeeds, the Einstein telescope could be used to observe the gravitational waves of the entire universe. The GRAVITHELIUM technology uses superfluid helium at temperatures close to absolute zero, a quantum fluid with outstanding properties. Prof. Grohmann's team has already theoretically proven how it works. With the help of ERC funding, a test center is now being set up at KIT to experimentally validate the theoretical concepts and solve the technological challenges.
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Image: Nikhef/Marco Kraan
