TianQin is a future space-based gravitational wave (GW) observatory targeting the frequency window of 10⁻⁴–1 Hz. A large variety of GW sources are expected in this frequency band, including the merger of massive black hole binaries, the inspiral of extreme/intermediate mass ratio systems, stellar-mass black hole binaries, Galactic compact binaries, and so on. TianQin will consist of three Earth orbiting satellites on nearly identical orbits with orbital radii of about 10⁵ km. The satellites will form a normal triangle constellation whose plane is nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic plane. The TianQin project has been progressing smoothly following the ‘0123’ technology roadmap. In step ‘0’, the TianQin laser ranging station has been constructed and it has successfully ranged to all the five retro-reflectors on the Moon. In step ‘1’, the drag-free control technology has been tested and demonstrated using the TianQin-1 satellite. In step ‘2’, the inter-satellite laser interferometry technology will be tested using the pair of TianQin-2 satellites. The TianQin-2 mission has been officially approved and the satellites will be launched around 2026. In step ‘3’, i.e. the TianQin-3 mission, three identical satellites will be launched around 2035 to form the space-based GW detector, TianQin, and to start GW detection in space.

We present the results of a search for long-duration gravitational-wave transients in the data from the Advanced LIGO second observation run; we search for gravitational-wave transients of 2–500 s duration in the 24–2048 Hz frequency band with minimal assumptions about signal properties such as waveform morphologies, polarization, sky location or time of occurrence. Signal families covered by these search algorithms include fallback accretion onto neutron stars, broadband chirps from innermost stable circular orbit waves around rotating black holes, eccentric inspiral-merger-ringdown compact binary coalescence waveforms, and other models. The second observation run totals about 118.3 days of coincident data between November 2016 and August 2017. We find no significant events within the parameter space that we searched, apart from the already-reported binary neutron star merger GW170817. We thus report sensitivity limits on the root-sum-square strain amplitude $h_{\mathrm{rss}}$ at 50% efficiency. These sensitivity estimates are an improvement relative to the first observing run and also done with an enlarged set of gravitational-wave transient waveforms. Overall, the best search sensitivity is $h_{\mathrm{rss}}^{50\%}=2.7\times {10}^{-22}{\mathrm{Hz}}^{-1/2}$ for a millisecond magnetar model. For eccentric compact binary coalescence signals, the search sensitivity reaches $h_{\mathrm{rss}}^{50\%}=9.6\times {10}^{-22}{\mathrm{Hz}}^{-1/2}$.

In this article, a piezo-based tuned vibration absorber is proposed and theoretically analysed. The proposed device consists of a proof mass, a piezoelectric actuator and a resilient element (spring). An equivalent mechanical model where the piezoelectric element is connected to a general circuit composed of a resistor, an inductor and a capacitor in series ( RLC) is presented to illustrate the coupling of the electrical components with the mechanical systems. Based on the mechanical replacement model, a C or L circuit can be used to realise a piezo-based tuned vibration neutraliser, while with an RC or RL circuit the piezo-based tuned vibration absorber can be considered as a piezo-based tuned mass damper. For the C and L circuits, tuning strategies are derived to adjust the shunt capacitance and inductance to track the disturbance frequency. In the case of RC and RL shunt circuits, an ℋ₂ optimisation criterion is used for tuning the piezo-based tuned mass damper. Closed-form expressions for the optimal tuning parameters are provided in this article.