Combining underground and on-surface third-generation gravitational-wave interferometers

Abstract Recently, detailed studies have been made to compare the performance of the European next generation GW observatory Einstein Telescope (ET) in a single-site triangular configuration with the performance of a configuration featuring two L-shaped detectors in different sites, still taken to have all other ET characteristics except for the geometry, in particular, underground and composed of a low-frequency interferometer working at cryogenic temperatures and a high-frequency interferometer working at room temperature. Here we study a further possibility for a European network, made by a single L-shaped underground detector, like one of the detectors considered for the 2L version of ET, and a single third-generation 20-km L-shaped interferometer on the surface. We compare the performances of such a network to those of the triangle and of the 2L-underground ET configurations. We then examine the performance of an intercontinental network made by a 40-km CE in the U.S., together with any of these European networks.