Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping

Jonas Buchli^#¹, Brendan Tracey^#¹, Tomislav Andric^#^{2

3}, Christopher Wipf^#⁴, Yu Him Justin Chiu^#¹, Matthias Lochbrunner^#¹, Craig Donner^#¹, Rana X Adhikari^#⁴, Jan Harms^#^{2

3}, Iain Barr¹, Roland Hafner¹, Andrea Huber¹, Abbas Abdolmaleki¹, Charlie Beattie¹, Joseph Betzwieser⁴, Serkan Cabi¹, Jonas Degrave¹, Yuzhu Dong¹, Leslie Fritz¹, Anchal Gupta⁴, Oliver Groth¹, Sandy Huang¹, Tamara Norman¹, Hannah Openshaw¹, Jameson Rollins⁴, Greg Thornton¹, George van den Driessche¹, Markus Wulfmeier¹, Pushmeet Kohli¹, Martin Riedmiller¹; LIGO Instrument Team‡; R Abbott⁵, I Abouelfettouh⁶, R X Adhikari⁵, A Ananyeva⁵, S Appert⁵, S K Apple⁷, K Arai⁵, N Aritomi⁶, S M Aston⁸, M Ball⁹, S W Ballmer¹⁰, D Barker⁶, L Barsotti¹¹, B K Berger¹², J Betzwieser⁸, D Bhattacharjee^{13

14}, G Billingsley⁵, S Biscans¹¹, C D Blair^{8

15}, N Bode^{16

17}, E Bonilla¹², V Bossilkov⁸, A Branch⁸, A F Brooks⁵, D D Brown¹⁸, J Bryant¹⁹, C Cahillane¹⁰, H Cao¹¹, E Capote⁶, F Clara⁶, J Collins⁸, C M Compton⁶, R Cottingham⁸, D C Coyne⁵, R Crouch⁶, J Csizmazia⁶, A Cumming²⁰, L P Dartez⁸, D Davis⁵, N Demos¹¹, E Dohmen⁶, J C Driggers⁶, S E Dwyer⁶, A Effer⁸, A Ejlli²¹, T Etzel⁵, M Evans¹¹, J Feicht⁵, R Frey⁹, W Frischhertz⁸, P Fritschel¹¹, V V Frolov⁸, M Fuentes-Garcia⁵, P Fulda²², M Fyffe⁸, D Ganapathy¹¹, B Gateley⁶, T Gayer¹⁰, J A Giaime^{8

23}, K D Giardina⁸, J Glanzer⁵, E Goetz²⁴, R Goetz²², A W Goodwin-Jones^{5

15}, S Gras¹¹, C Gray⁶, D Griffith⁵, H Grote²¹, T Guidry⁶, J Gurs²⁵, E D Hall¹¹, J Hanks⁶, J Hanson¹⁰, M C Heintze¹⁰, A F Helmling-Cornell⁹, N A Holland²⁶, D Hoyland¹⁹, H Y Huang²⁷, Y Inoue²⁷, A L James⁵, A Jennings⁶, W Jia¹¹, D H Jones²⁸, H B Kabagoz⁸, S Karat⁵, S Karki¹⁴, M Kasprzack⁵, K Kawabe⁶, N Kijbunchoo¹⁸, P J King⁶, J S Kissel⁶, K Komori²⁹, A Kontos³⁰, Rahul Kumar⁶, K Kuns¹¹, M Landry⁶, B Lantz¹², M Laxen¹⁶, K Lee³⁰, M Lesovsky⁵, F Llamas Villarreal³¹, M Lormand⁸, H A Loughlin¹¹, R Macas³², M MacInnis¹¹, C N Makarem⁵, B Mannix⁹, G L Mansell¹⁰, R M Martin³³, K Mason¹¹, F Matichard¹¹, N Mavalvala¹¹, N Maxwell⁶, G McCarrol⁸, R McCarthy⁶, D E Mc-Clelland²⁸, S McCormick⁸, T McRae²⁸, F Mera⁶, E L Merilh⁸, F Meylahn^{16

17}, R Mittleman¹¹, D Moraru⁶, G Moreno⁶, A Mullavey⁸, M Nakano⁵, T J N Nelson⁸, A Neunzert⁶, J Notte³³, J Oberling⁶, T O'Hanlon¹⁰, C Osthelder⁵, D J Ottaway¹⁸, H Overmier⁸, W Parker⁸, O Patane⁶, A Pele⁵, H Pham⁸, M Pirello⁶, J Pullin²³, V Quetschke³¹, K E Ramire⁸, K Ransom⁸, J Reyes³³, J W Richardson³⁴, M Robinson⁶, J G Rollins⁵, C L Romel⁶, J H Romie¹⁰, M P Ross⁷, K Ryan⁶, T Sadecki⁶, A Sanchez⁶, E J Sanchez⁵, L E Sanchez⁵, R L Savage⁶, D Schaetzl⁵, M G Schiworski¹⁰, R Schnabel²⁵, R M S Schofield⁹, E Schwartz¹², D Sellers¹⁰, T Shaffer⁶, R W Short⁶, D Sigg⁶, B J J Slagmolen²⁸, C Soike⁶, S Soni¹¹, V Srivastava¹⁰, L Sun²⁸, D B Tanner²², M Thomas⁸, P Thomas⁶, K A Thorne⁸, M R Todd¹⁰, C I Torrie⁵, G Traylor⁸, A S Ubhi¹⁹, G Vajente⁵, J Vanosky⁶, A Vecchio¹⁹, P J Veitch¹⁸, A M Vibhute⁶, E R G von Reis⁶, J Warner⁶, B Weaver⁶, R Weiss¹¹, C Whittle⁵, B Willke^{16

17}, C C Wipf⁵, J L Wright²⁸, V A Xu¹¹, H Yamamoto⁵, L Zhang⁵, M E Zucker^{5

11}

Affiliations

¹ Google DeepMind, London, UK.
² Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), L'Aquila, Italy.
³ Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi (INFN), Italy.
⁴ LIGO Laboratory, Division of Physics, Math, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁵ LIGO Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁶ LIGO Hanford Observatory, Richland, WA, USA.
⁷ University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁸ LIGO Livingston Observatory, Livingston, LA, USA.
⁹ University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.
¹⁰ Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
¹¹ LIGO Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹² Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹³ Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA.
¹⁴ Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA.
¹⁵ OzGrav, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.
¹⁶ Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Hannover, Germany.
¹⁷ Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
¹⁸ OzGrav, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
¹⁹ University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
²⁰ SUPA, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
²¹ Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
²² University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
²³ Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
²⁴ University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
²⁵ Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
²⁶ Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
²⁷ National Central University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
²⁸ OzGrav, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
²⁹ University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
³⁰ Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea.
³¹ The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, TX, USA.
³² University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.
³³ Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA.
³⁴ University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 40906851
DOI: 10.1126/science.adw1291

Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping

Jonas Buchli et al. Science. 2025.

. 2025 Sep 4;389(6764):1012-1015.

doi: 10.1126/science.adw1291. Epub 2025 Sep 4.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Google DeepMind, London, UK.
² Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), L'Aquila, Italy.
³ Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi (INFN), Italy.
⁴ LIGO Laboratory, Division of Physics, Math, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁵ LIGO Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁶ LIGO Hanford Observatory, Richland, WA, USA.
⁷ University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁸ LIGO Livingston Observatory, Livingston, LA, USA.
⁹ University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.
¹⁰ Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
¹¹ LIGO Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹² Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹³ Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, USA.
¹⁴ Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA.
¹⁵ OzGrav, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.
¹⁶ Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Hannover, Germany.
¹⁷ Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
¹⁸ OzGrav, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
¹⁹ University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
²⁰ SUPA, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
²¹ Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
²² University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
²³ Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
²⁴ University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
²⁵ Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
²⁶ Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
²⁷ National Central University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
²⁸ OzGrav, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
²⁹ University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
³⁰ Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea.
³¹ The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, TX, USA.
³² University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.
³³ Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA.
³⁴ University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 40906851
DOI: 10.1126/science.adw1291

Abstract

Improved low-frequency sensitivity of gravitational wave observatories would unlock study of intermediate-mass black hole mergers and binary black hole eccentricity and provide early warnings for multimessenger observations of binary neutron star mergers. Today's mirror stabilization control injects harmful noise, constituting a major obstacle to sensitivity improvements. We eliminated this noise through Deep Loop Shaping, a reinforcement learning method using frequency domain rewards. We proved our methodology on the LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO). Our controller reduced control noise in the 10- to 30-hertz band by over 30x and up to 100x in subbands, surpassing the design goal motivated by the quantum limit. These results highlight the potential of Deep Loop Shaping to improve current and future gravitational wave observatories and, more broadly, instrumentation and control systems.

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Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping

Affiliations

Improving cosmological reach of a gravitational wave observatory using Deep Loop Shaping

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

LinkOut - more resources

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