Probably more important is to establish quantitatively how particle counts affects the lock acquisition or noise in the interferometer.
We don't want to adopt a "Sky is Falling" mentality as was done previously in LIGO when people were trying to outlaw burritos and perfume.
Dust monitor counts and human noses do not correlate well with the interferometer's nose.

When the vacuum system is closed, we might check to see if particle counts correlate with losses in the PMC or excess scatter on the ISC tables. If not, we should move on to other concerns. |