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Gravitational Waves Theory

Contents

Concept
of Gravity
Aristotle
Newton
Einstein

Prediction

Discovery

Future

Gravitation
al waves

LIGO
Properties
of GW
EMs vs
GWs

Early
Universe
Cosmology
Unknowns

Round 1: Newton
Gravity really does exist, Newton
stated in 1687. It acts according to
the laws which we have explained,
and abundantly serves to account
for all the motions of the celestial
bodies.

Round 1: Newton
But How does it work??
Silence from Newtons corner.
The truth is, Newton could describe
gravity, but he didnt know how it worked.
Gravity must be caused by an agent
acting constantly according to certain
laws, he admitted. But whether this
agent be material or immaterial, I have
left to the consideration of my readers.

Round 2: Einstein
Apparently Albert Einstein
wasnt intimidated. He even
apologized. Newton, forgive
me, he wrote in his
memoirs. You found the
only way which, in your age,
was just about possible for a
man of highest thought and
creative power.

Einsteins Prediction
In 1915, after eight years of sorting
his thoughts, Einstein had dreamed
up (literally--he had no experimental
precursors) an agent that caused
gravity. And it wasnt simply a force.
According to his theory of General
Relativity, gravity is much weirder: a
natural consequence of a masss
influence on space.

Einsteins Prediction
Einstein agreed with Newton that space
had dimension: width, length, and
height. Space might be filled with
matter, or it might not. But Newton
didnt believe that space was affected
by the objects in it. Einstein did. He
theorized that a mass can prod space
plenty. It can warp it, bend it, push it, or
pull it. Gravity was just a natural
outcome of a masss existence in space.

From prediction to reality: a history of

the search for gravitational waves
1915 - Albert Einstein publishes general theory of relativity, explains gravity as the
warping of spacetime by mass or energy
1916 - Einstein predicts massive objects whirling in certain ways will cause spacetime
ripplesgravitational waves
1936 - Einstein has second thoughts and argues in a manuscript that the waves don't
existuntil reviewer points out a mistake
1962 - Russian physicists M. E. Gertsenshtein and V. I. Pustovoit publish paper sketch
optical method for detecting gravitational
wavesto no notice
1969 - Physicist Joseph Weber claims gravitational wave detection using massive
aluminum cylindersreplication efforts fail
1972 - Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge
independently proposes optical method for detecting waves

1st Clue
It wasnt until 1974 that scientists even got
close. That year two radio astronomers,
Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse, were
analyzing
a
pair
of
neutron
stars
(superdense collapsed stars) that orbit each
other. Hulse and Taylor realized that the
orbits were speeding up at a rate Einstein
predicted would occur if gravitational waves
were indeed being generated by the system.
The first indirect evidence of gravitational
waves was in, but the waves themselves
were not directly measured.

Einsteins Prediction
1979 - National Science Foundation (NSF) funds California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena and MIT to develop design for LIGO
1990 - NSF agrees to fund $250 million LIGO experiment
1992 - Sites in Washington and Louisiana selected for LIGO facilities; construction starts 2
years later
1995 - Construction starts on GEO600 gravitational wave detector in Germany, which
partners with LIGO and starts taking data in 2002
1996 - Construction starts on VIRGO gravitational wave detector in Italy, which starts
taking data in 2007
20022010 - Runs of initial LIGOno detection of gravitational waves
2007 - LIGO and VIRGO teams agree to share data, forming a single global network of
gravitational wave detectors
20102015 - $205 million upgrade of LIGO detectors
2015 - Advanced LIGO begins initial detection runs in September

Gravitational Waves

In physics, gravitational waves are ripples

in the curvature of space-time which
propagate as waves, travelling outward from
the
source.
Predicted in 1916
by
Albert Einstein on the basis of his theory of
general relativity,
gravitational
waves
transport energy as gravitational radiation.

LIGO
Various gravitational-wave observatories (detectors) are
under construction or in operation, such as
Advanced LIGO which began observations in September
2015. Potential sources of detectable gravitational waves
include binary star systems composed of white dwarfs,
neutron stars, or black holes. On February 11, 2016, the
LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration
teams announced that they had
first observation of gravitational waves from a pair of
merging black holes using the Advanced LIGO detectors.

Present Discovery

On 11 February 2016, the LIGO/EGO

collaboration
announced
the
detection of gravitational waves,
from
a
signal detected at 10:51 GMT on 14
September 2015 of two black holes with
masses of 29 and 36 solar masses merging
together around 1.3 billion light years away.
The mass of the new black hole obtained
from merging the two was 62 solar masses.

Discovery
The signal was seen by both LIGO detectors, in
Livingston and Hanford, with a time difference of 7
milliseconds due to the angle between the two
detectors and the source. The signal came from the
Southern Celestial Hemisphere, in the rough direction
of (but much further away than) the Magellanic
Clouds. The confidence level of the discovery was
99.99994%. The research made by the Rochester
Institute of Technology contributed to the discovery.

Properties of Gravitational Waves

with other waves, there are a number of characteristics used to
describe a gravitational wave:
Amplitude: Usually denoted h, this is the size of the wave the
fraction of stretching or squeezing in the animation. The amplitude
shown here is roughly h = 0.5 (or 50%). Gravitational waves passing
through the Earth are many sextillion times weaker than this h
1020.
Frequency: Usually denoted f, this is the frequency with which the
wave oscillates (1 divided by the amount of time between two
successive maximum stretches or squeezes)
Wavelength: Usually denoted , this is the distance along the wave
between points of maximum stretch or squeeze.
Speed: This is the speed at which a point on the wave (for example, a
point of maximum stretch or squeeze) travels. For gravitational waves
with small amplitudes, this wave speed is equal to the speed of light (c).

Electromagnetic Waves Vs Gravitational

Waves
EM waves are produced by accelerated charges,
whereas GWs are produced by accelerated
masses.
EM waves propagate through space-time, GWs are
oscillations of space-time itself.
Typical frequencies of EM waves range from (107 Hz
1020 Hz) whereas GW frequencies range from ~
(10-9 Hz 104 Hz). They are more like sound waves.

Future of Gravitational Waves

Gravitational waves should penetrate regions of
space that electromagnetic waves cannot. It is
hypothesized that they will be able to provide
observers on Earth with information about black holes
and other exotic objects in the distant Universe. Such
systems cannot be observed with more traditional
means such as optical telescopes or radio telescopes,
and so gravitational-wave astronomy gives new
insights into the working of the Universe.

Future of Gravitational Waves

In particular, gravitational waves could be of interest
to cosmologists as they offer a possible way of
observing the very early Universe. This is not
possible with conventional astronomy, since before
recombination the Universe was opaque to
electromagnetic radiation. Precise measurements of
gravitational waves will also allow scientists to more
thoroughly test the general theory of relativity