MiniGRAIL, the first spherical detector

Abstract

An overview is given on the possibilities of building low cost omni-directional gravitational wave detectors using resonant spheres. Sensitivity curves of arrays and xylophones of spheres fabricated from different materials show that spherical detectors can be competitive with the large interferometers at frequencies above 1 kHz, with the additional advantage of being omni-directional and being able to determine the direction and polarization of the gravitational wave. MiniGRAIL is the first spherical resonant detector, being built at the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory of Leiden University in the Netherlands. The detector is planned to operate at a temperature of about 20 mK and will have a quantum limited strain sensitivity for a burst signal of the order of 4 × 10−21. We present the progress concerning cryogenics and transducer development.