Chapter 23: System design and trade-offs

Previous chapters in this volume have presented the major components of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo interferometers, describing their specific roles. Establishing a design that can reach the desired interferometer performance goals, both in terms of sensitivity and operational uptime, falls into the domain of detector system design. This chapter presents the approaches and considerations in developing the overall interferometer design, as well as examining some of the trade-offs and subsystem interplay that must be considered as the design develops.