The goal of the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is to detect and study gravitational waves (GWs) of astrophysical origin. Direct detection of GWs holds the promise of testing general relativity in the strong-field regime, of providing a new probe of exotic objects such as black holes and neutron stars and of uncovering unanticipated new astrophysics. LIGO, a joint Caltech-MIT project supported by the National Science Foundation, operates three multi-kilometer interferometers at two widely separated sites in the United States. These detectors are the result of decades of worldwide technology development, design, construction and commissioning. They are now operating at their design sensitivity, and are sensitive to gravitational wave strains smaller than one part in 10 21 . With this unprecedented sensitivity, the data are being analyzed to detect or place limits on GWs from a variety of potential astrophysical sources.

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The Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI) is a long-baseline infrared interferometer located at Palomar Observatory, California. It was built as a testbed for interferometric techniques applicable to the Keck Interferometer. First fringes were obtained in July 1995. PTI implements a dual-star architecture, tracking two stars simultaneously for phase referencing and narrow-angle astrometry. The three fixed 40-cm apertures can be combined pair-wise to provide baselines to 110 m. The interferometer actively tracks the white-light fringe using an array detector at 2.2 um and active delay lines with a range of +/- 38 m. Laser metrology of the delay lines allows for servo control, and laser metrology of the complete optical path enables narrow-angle astrometric measurements. The instrument is highly automated, using a multiprocessing computer system for instrument control and sequencing.Comment: ApJ in Press (Jan 99) Fig 1 available from http://huey.jpl.nasa.gov/~bode/ptiPicture.html, revised duging copy edi

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