A gravitational-wave detector (used in a gravitational-wave observatory) is any device designed to measure tiny distortions of spacetime called gravitational waves. Since the 1960s, various kinds of gravitational-wave detectors have been built and constantly improved. The present-day generation of laser interferometers has reached the necessary sensitivity to detect gravitational waves from astronomical sources, thus forming the primary tool of gravitational-wave astronomy.
The first direct detection of gravitational waves made in 2015 by the Advanced LIGO observatories, a feat which was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The direct detection of gravitational waves is complicated by the extraordinarily small effect the waves produce on a detector. The amplitude of a spherical wave falls off as the inverse of the distance from the source. Thus, even waves from extreme systems such as merging binary black holes die out to a very small amplitude by the time they reach the Earth. Astrophysicists predicted that some gravitational waves passing the Earth might produce differential motion on the order 10−18 m in a LIGO-size instrument.
A simple device to detect the expected wave motion is called a resonant mass antenna – a large, solid body of metal isolated from outside vibrations. This type of instrument was the first type of gravitational-wave detector. Strains in space due to an incident gravitational wave excite the body's resonant frequency and could thus be amplified to detectable levels. Conceivably, a nearby supernova might be strong enough to be seen without resonant amplification. However, up to 2018, no gravitational wave observation that would have been widely accepted by the research community has been made on any type of resonant mass antenna, despite certain claims of observation by researchers operating the antennas.
There are three types of resonant mass antenna that have been built: room-temperature bar antennas, cryogenically cooled bar antennas and cryogenically cooled spherical antennas.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
A gravitational-wave detector (used in a gravitational-wave observatory) is any device designed to measure tiny distortions of spacetime called gravitational waves. Since the 1960s, various kinds of gravitational-wave detectors have been built and constantly improved. The present-day generation of laser interferometers has reached the necessary sensitivity to detect gravitational waves from astronomical sources, thus forming the primary tool of gravitational-wave astronomy.
Gravitational-wave astronomy is an emerging field of science, concerning the observations of gravitational waves (minute distortions of spacetime predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity) to collect relatively unique data and make inferences about objects such as neutron stars and black holes, events such as supernovae, and processes including those of the early universe shortly after the Big Bang.
The first direct observation of gravitational waves was made on 14 September 2015 and was announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016. Previously, gravitational waves had been inferred only indirectly, via their effect on the timing of pulsars in binary star systems. The waveform, detected by both LIGO observatories, matched the predictions of general relativity for a gravitational wave emanating from the inward spiral and merger of a pair of black holes of around 36 and 29 solar masses and the subsequent "ringdown" of the single resulting black hole.
This course provides an in-depth treatment of the latest experimental and theoretical topics in quantum sciences and technologies, including for example quantum sensing, quantum optics, cold atoms, th
Introduction to time-variable astrophysical objects and processes, from Space Weather to stars, black holes, and galaxies. Introduction to time-series analysis, instrumentation targeting variability,
This course is the basic introduction to modern cosmology. It introduces students to the main concepts and formalism of cosmology, the observational status of Hot Big Bang theory
and discusses major
Classical soft graviton theorem gives the gravitational wave-form at future null infinity at late retarded time u for a general classical scattering. The large u expansion has three known universal te
Explores a thermally complete study of inflationary predictions, covering topics such as interaction between inflaton and medium, gravitational wave production, and consequences for gravitational waves.
Explores constructing correlators using path integrals in quantum mechanics, focusing on the Euclidean and Minkowski spaces and the significance of imaginary time evolution.
GRANDMA is a world-wide collaboration with the primary scientific goal of studying gravitational-wave sources, discovering their electromagnetic counterparts and characterizing their emission. GRANDMA
SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING2022
Gravitational waves (GWs) generate oscillating electromagnetic effects in the vicinity of external electric and magnetic fields. We discuss this phenomenon with a particular focus on reinterpreting th