The general theory of harmonic oscillators with time-dependent frequency and 'effective mass' is related in the present work to the use of the adiabatic approximation. A slow 'pumping' of energy into the mechanical oscillator leads to a slow increase of the amplitude and frequency with squeezing effects by which the noise in one quadrature is increasing and in the other quadrature is decreasing. An order of magnitude for the squeezing effect is calculated. It is suggested to use this theory for mechanical oscillators in traps and for resonant detectors. The other extreme case of 'impulse' interaction in which the time of interaction is very small relative to the time period of the harmonic oscillator is analyzed. In the 'impact' approximation the time development is without any squeezing, but broadening effects might be important under special conditions. The 'impact' approximation might be related to the detection of gravitational waves by Michelson interferometers.
The general theory of harmonic oscillators with time-dependent frequency and 'effective mass' is related in the present work to the use of the adiabatic approximation. A slow 'pumping' of energy into the mechanical oscillator leads to a slow increase of the amplitude and frequency with squeezing effects by which the noise in one quadrature is increasing and in the other quadrature is decreasing. An order of magnitude for the squeezing effect is calculated. It is suggested to use this theory for mechanical oscillators in traps and for resonant detectors. The other extreme case of 'impulse' interaction in which the time of interaction is very small relative to the time period of the harmonic oscillator is analyzed. In the 'impact' approximation the time development is without any squeezing, but broadening effects might be important under special conditions. The 'impact' approximation might be related to the detection of gravitational waves by Michelson interferometers.
A slow increase of the amplitude and frequency of a mechanical harmonic oscillator leads to squeezing effects, which are related to the use of the adiabatic approximation. An order of magnitude for this squeezing is calculated and it is suggested to use the present theory for mechanical oscillators in traps and for resonant detectors. The other extreme case of 'impact' interaction is analyzed in which the time of interaction is small relative to the time period of the harmonic oscillator. In the latter case the time development is without any squeezing but broadening effects for the mechanical wave packets might be important.
Gravitational waves reaching a Michelson interferometer are expected to induce a very small change in the length of its arms causing a phase shift between them, but it is very difficult to observe the extremely small phase shift signals produced. In the present letter we show that the gravitational waves signal could be amplified by orders of magnitude by using very special conditions for a coherent-squeezed Michelson interferometer in which the coherent state enters one port of the interferometer and the squeezed vacuum enters in the other port. We treat the case where without the gravitational induced phase shift the very strong coherent state goes out of one output port while the squeezed vacuum goes out the other output port (the ``dark'' port). While the phase shift produced by the gravitation waves does not give any significant change in the strong coherent output, the light intensity in the ``dark'' port is amplified with decreased fluctuations as the squeezing increases.
The dynamics of the harmonic oscillator, with a fluctuating, time-dependent frequency, is studied in the quantum framework. For periodic fluctuations of period \ensuremath{\tau}, it is found that the mean energy diverges exponentially in time, provided \ensuremath{\tau} falls into certain ``bands,'' centered around ``quasiresonant'' values, for which the rate of increase is maximum. In agreement with the correspondence principle, this rate is shown to coincide exactly with the one obtained for the classic oscillator, in the same conditions [Loris Ferrari, Phys. Rev. B 56, 593 (1997)]. The notion of adiabaticity has been revisited in the case of exponentially diverging mean energy. It is found that the Heisenberg form of the Hamiltonian operator can be expressed as a new effective Hamiltonian, which is still harmonic, but has exponentially diverging coefficients. It is argued that the same results hold in general (that is, without any quasiresonance condition) if the frequency fluctuation in time is disordered. A brief discussion is presented about nonharmonic interactions leading to dissipative effects. Applications to real physical systems are outlined, with special reference to the electrons in a uniform and constant magnetic field, to which a small fluctuating component is added.
The author examines the possibility of generating squeezed states out of coherent states by external changes of the oscillator frequency. Using the evolution operator method developed by Cheng and Fung, he investigates the evolution of a coherent state of a time-dependent harmonic oscillator as well as its squeezing and coherence property. Two specific models of frequency variation are explored; namely, one whose frequency is exponentially decreasing in time and the other with a periodic frequency. His analyses indicates that the wavefunction of the time-dependent oscillator starts as a coherent state at t=O and evolves as a squeezed state at a later time. It is also shown that squeezing cannot be generated by an adiabatic change of the oscillator frequency because the variances of q and p turn out to be adiabatic invariants, whereas a sudden change can produce squeezing.
Gravitational-wave astronomy promises a radically new method of investigating the universe, one that does not detect elementary particles, but rather ripples in space-time itself. One might expect that with this radically new method, our understanding of the universe will make an equally giant leap. One of the most promising methods for the eventual detection of gravitational-waves is that of interferometric gravitational-wave detection. The sensitivity of these devices is nothing short of amazing, and their sensitivity continues to improve. The next generation of detectors are expected reach a point where increasing the laser power, previously used to increase the sensitivity, is no longer expected to provide any benefit. One of the most promising options for further increasing the sensitivity, through reduction of the quantum noise, is via the application of "squeezed states of light". Squeezed states of light are light fields for which the noise of some observable has been reduced below the quantum noise limit. These states have been shown for many years to offer increased sensitivity in interferometers and recently in interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. One of the most challenging tasks to make suitable squeezed light sources for these detectors is to produce low-frequency squeezing, corresponding to the detection band of these interferometers. This thesis details the doubly resonant travelling wave bow-tie squeezer as a source of squeezing for interferometric gravitational-wave detection. This squeezer achieves record results of squeezing in the gravitational-wave detection band. For the first time, 10 dB of shot noise suppression at 10Hz is directly observed and above 200Hz, 11.6 dB is observed. The work presented in this thesis provides evidence that further substantiates previous progress indicating that squeezed states of light are now ready for full-time integration into interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. The new cavity design, described in detail throughout this thesis, is shown to outperform previous designs and provide benefits when integrating squeezing into these detectors, in particular, isolation to backscattered light from the interferometer. The noise sources that typically lead to degradation in squeezing measurements are investigated and discussed. Additionally, a modification to the standard locking technique used to control these vacuum squeezed states, coherent locking, is presented and discussed. The modified technique reduces the required number of locking loops and provides a larger beat note from which to derive an error signal for one of the remaining loops. A squeezer using these design philosophies is then constructed and used to inject squeezing into the LIGO gravitational-wave detector. Injection of the squeezed state provides enhancement of the sensitivity of the detector at frequencies around 200Hz and above. The sensitivity seen was equivalent to approximately 2 dB of shot noise reduction. The enhancement is limited by the loss within the interferometer. Injection of the squeezed state did not show any degradation in the sensitivity of the device below 200Hz, indicating for the first time that noise couplings between the interferometer and the squeezer could be sufficiently suppressed at these frequencies even for the most sensitive detectors.
In this paper we investigate the time evolution of a general time-dependent harmonic oscillator (TDHO) with variable mass using Feynman path integral approach. We explicitly evaluate the squeezing in the quadrature components of a general quantum TDHO with variable mass. This calculation is further elaborated for three particular cases of variable mass whose propagator can be written in a closed form. We also obtain an exact form of the time-evolution operator, the wave function, and the time-dependent coherent state for the TDHO. Our results clearly indicate that the time-dependent coherent state is equivalent to the squeezed coherent state.