Prospects of higher-order Laguerre-Gauss modes in future gravitational wave detectors

The application of higher- order Laguerre-Gauss (LG) modes in large-scale gravitational wave detectors has recently been proposed. In comparison to the fundamental mode, some higher- order Laguerre-Gauss modes can significantly reduce the contribution of coating Brownian noise. Using frequency domain simulations we give a detailed analysis of the longitudinal and angular control signals derived with a LG(33) mode in comparison to the fundamental transverse electromagnetic TEM00 mode. The performance regarding interferometric sensing and control of the LG(33) mode is found to be similar, if not even better in all aspects of interest. In addition, we evaluate the sensitivity gain of the implementation of LG(33) modes into the Advanced Virgo instrument. Our analysis shows that the application of the LG(33) mode results in a broadband improvement of the Advanced Virgo sensitivity, increasing the potential detection rate of binary neutron star inspirals by a factor 2.1.