Abatement of thermal noise due to internal damping in 2D oscillators with rapidly rotating test masses

Mechanical oscillators can be sensitive to very small forces. Low frequency effects are up-converted to higher frequency by rotating the oscillator. We show that for 2-dimensional oscillators rotating at frequency much higher than the signal the thermal noise force due to internal losses and competi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2011-11, Vol.107 (20), p.200801-200801, Article 200801
Main Authors: Pegna, R, Nobili, A M, Shao, M, Turyshev, S G, Catastini, G, Anselmi, A, Spero, R, Doravari, S, Comandi, G L, De Michele, A
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Mechanical oscillators can be sensitive to very small forces. Low frequency effects are up-converted to higher frequency by rotating the oscillator. We show that for 2-dimensional oscillators rotating at frequency much higher than the signal the thermal noise force due to internal losses and competing with it is abated as the square root of the rotation frequency. We also show that rotation at frequency much higher than the natural one is possible if the oscillator has 2 degrees of freedom, and describe how this property applies also to torsion balances. In addition, in the 2D oscillator the signal is up-converted above resonance without being attenuated as in the 1D case, thus relaxing requirements on the read out. This work indicates that proof masses weakly coupled in 2D and rapidly rotating can play a major role in very small force physics experiments.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.200801