Stable operation of a 300-m laser interferometer with sufficient sensitivity to detect gravitational-wave events within our galaxy

TAMA300, an interferometric gravitational-wave detector with 300-m baseline length, has been developed and operated with sufficient sensitivity to detect gravitational-wave events within our galaxy and sufficient stability for observations: the interferometer was operated for over 10 hours stably and continuously. With a strain-equivalent noise level of h similar to 5 x 10(-21)/root Hz, a signal-to-noise ratio of 30 is expected for gravitational waves generated by a coalescence of 1.4M(circle dot)-1.4M(circle dot) binary neutron stars at 10 kpc distance. We evaluated the stability of the detector sensitivity with a 2-week data-taking run. collecting 160 hours of data to be analyzed in the search for gravitational waves.