Toward optomechanical parametric instability prediction in ground-based gravitational wave detectors

Increasing laser power is essential to improve the sensitivity of interferometric gravitational wave detectors. However, optomechanical parametric instabilities can set a limit to that power. It is of major importance to understand and characterize the many parameters and effects that influence these instabilities. Here, we model with a high degree of precision the optical and mechanical modes involved in these parametric instabilities, such that our model can become predictive. As an example, we perform simulations for the Advanced Virgo interferometer (O3 configuration). In particular, we compute mechanical mode losses by combining both on-site measurements and finite element analysis with unprecedented levels of detail and accuracy. We also study the influence on optical modes and parametric gains of mirror finite size effects, and mirror deformations due to thermal absorption. We show that these effects play an important role if transverse optical modes of orders higher than four are involved in the instability process.