MiniGrail
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MiniGRAIL is the world's first spherical gravitational wave detector, based at Leiden University, the Netherlands. The Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory is managing the project. A team from the Department of Theoretical Physics of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, is also heavily involved.
The MiniGRAIL detector is a cryogenic 68 cm diameter spherical gravitational wave antenna made of CuAl(6%) alloy with a mass of 1400 kg, a resonance frequency of 2.9 kHz and a bandwidth around 230 Hz, possibly higher. The quantum-limited strain sensitivity dL/L would be on the order of 4×10-21. The antenna will operate at a temperature of 20 mK. Another similar detector is being built in São Paulo, which will strongly increase the chances of detection by looking at coincidences. The sources being aimed at are, for instance, non-axisymmetric instabilities in rotating single and binary neutron stars, small black hole or neutron star mergers.
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