https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02851-z
Regular Article
A lower limit for Newtonian-noise models of the Einstein Telescope
1
Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
2
INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67100, Assergi, Italy
3
INFN, Sezione di Roma, 00185, Roma, Italy
4
Università degli studi Federico II Napoli, 80126, Napoli, Italy
5
INFN, Sezione di Napoli, 80126, Napoli, Italy
6
Università degli studi di Roma Sapienza, 00185, Roma, Italy
7
Università degli studi di Sassari, 07100, Sassari, Italy
8
INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, 95123, Catania, Italy
Received:
7
May
2022
Accepted:
19
May
2022
Published online:
13
June
2022
The Einstein Telescope (ET) is a proposed third-generation gravitational-wave (GW) underground observatory. It will have greatly increased sensitivity compared to current GW detectors, and it is designed to extend the observation band down to a few Hz. At these frequencies, a major limitation of the ET sensitivity is predicted to be due to gravitational fluctuations produced by the environment, most importantly by the seismic field, which give rise to the so-called Newtonian noise (NN). Accurate models of ET NN are crucial to assess the compatibility of an ET candidate site with the ET sensitivity target also considering a possible reduction in NN by noise cancellation. With NN models becoming increasingly complex as they include details of geology and topography, it is crucial to have tools to make robust assessments of their accuracy. For this purpose, we derive a lower bound on seismic NN spectra, which is weakly dependent on geology and properties of the seismic field. As a first application, we use the lower limit to compare it with NN estimates recently calculated for the Sardinia and Euregio Meuse–Rhine (EMR) candidate sites. We find the utility of the method, which shows an inconsistency with the predictions for the EMR site, which indicates that ET NN models require further improvement.
© The Author(s) 2022
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