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    Gravitational Waves: A New Window to the Universe
    Gravitational Waves: A New Window to the Universe
    Gravitational Waves: A New Window to the Universe
    Ebook335 pages3 hours

    Gravitational Waves: A New Window to the Universe

    By Ajit Kembhavi and Pushpa Khare

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    About this ebook

    Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, a year after the development of his new theory of gravitation known as the general theory of relativity. This theory established gravitation as the curvature of space-time produced by matter and energy. To be discernible even to the most sensitive instruments on Earth, the waves have to be produced by immensely massive objects like black holes and neutron stars which are rotating around each other, or in the extreme situations which prevail in the very early ages of the Universe.  This book presents the story of the prediction of gravitational waves by Albert Einstein, the early attempts to detect the waves, the development of the LIGO detector, the first detection in 2016, the subsequent detections and their implications. All concepts are described in some detail, without the use of any mathematics and advanced physics which are needed for a full understanding of the subject. The book also contains description of electromagnetism, Einstein’s special theory and general theory of relativity, white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes and other concepts which are needed for understanding gravitational waves and their effects. Also described are the LIGO detectors and the cutting edge technology that goes into building them, and the extremely accurate measurements that are needed to detect gravitational waves. The book covers these ideas in a simple and lucid fashion which should be accessible to all interested readers. The first detection of gravitational waves was given a lot of space in the print and electronic media. So, the curiosity of the non-technical audience has been aroused about what gravitational waves really are and why they are so important. This book seeks to answer such questions.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSpringer
    Release dateAug 6, 2020
    ISBN9789811557095
    Gravitational Waves: A New Window to the Universe

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      Book preview

      Gravitational Waves - Ajit Kembhavi

      © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

      A. Kembhavi, P. KhareGravitational Waveshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5709-5_1

      1. Introduction

      Ajit Kembhavi¹   and Pushpa Khare²

      (1)

      Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India

      (2)

      Retired Professor of Physics (Utkal University), Baner, Pune, India

      Ajit Kembhavi

      Email: akk@iucaa.in

      Abstract

      On 11 February 2016, a momentous announcement of the first detection of gravitational waves was made by David Reitze, the Director of the LIGO Laboratory. The existence of these waves was first predicted by Albert Einstein a century earlier in 1916. But these waves are extremely weak and had remained undetected in spite of several efforts. They were finally detected by the Advanced LIGO detectors located in Hanford, Washington State and Livingston, Louisiana in the USA on 15 September 2015. The announcement of detection was made after long and careful analysis of the data to establish that the weak signal was indeed due to a gravitational wave and not due to some spurious noise in the system or seismic disturbance. Astronomers all over the world were greatly excited by the discovery, which was a triumph of the extreme technical capability scientists established through decades of hard work. The discovery verified Einstein’s century-old prediction and enabled for the first time the direct detection of a black hole and a black hole binary system. It also opened the new window of gravitational wave astronomy to the Universe, which until then could be observed only through electromagnetic waves, cosmic rays and neutrinos coming to us from distant objects. In the first chapter, we summarise the announcement of the discovery and set the stage for the rest of the book.

      On the 11 February 2016, scientists and journalists from all over the world were gathered for a press conference called by the LIGO Labs (LIGO: Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory) in the USA. Under the LIGO Labs there are two gravitational wave detectors which for years had been trying to detect the waves. The detectors had gone through a period of upgradation, and had been operating with much enhanced sensitivity since September 2015, so it was widely believed that there would be an announcement of a detection at the press conference. A small number of scientists, journalists and media persons were fortunate enough to be present at the venue of the announcement in Washington D. C. But thousands more were in remote attendance in small and large groups all over the world, as the event was broadcast over the Internet. In all such gatherings, the excitement was palpable.

      The event in Washington D. C. opened with some remarks by the Head of the National Science Foundation, USA, which funds the LIGO Labs. In a few minutes, David Reitze, the Director of LIGO Labs, was handed the microphone and he made the much awaited announcement:‘Ladies and gentleman, we have detected gravitational waves, we DID IT!’. This was met with thunderous applause not only at the venue but at all places in the world where the event was being watched. The audience in the several packed auditoria in the world stood up clapping and yelling. Everyone present there was thrilled and felt extremely privileged to have been able to listen to the announcement as it was made. Some of the people in the audience had made seminal contributions to the theory of gravitational waves and the data analysis required to detect the signal. Many others present had made important contributions to the building of the instruments, observations and analysis and were authors of the research paper in which the discovery was announced.

      Why was everyone so excited? What are gravitational waves and why is their detection so important? The purpose of the present book is to answer these questions in some detail, but in a manner which would be accessible to everyone who may be interested, regardless of their background. While we will develop the story and describe all terms and concepts and ideas over several chapters of the book, we will present a short introduction here for the reader. The reader may be unfamiliar with some of the terms and concepts appearing in this chapter. All these will be described in the following chapters.

      Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, from his theory of gravitation, which he had completed a year earlier in 1915. Strong gravitational waves are produced by certain cosmic objects. They propagate with the speed of light as ripples in the structure of space-time and lead to changes in the dimension of an object in their path. The effect produced is extremely tiny and is very difficult to detect. It was realised in the 1960s and 1970s that gravitational waves could be detected by laser interferometers. Construction of the first such devices started in the mid-1990s in Hanford in Washington State and Livingstone in Louisiana. The LIGO interferometers began gravitational wave searches in 2002, which continued for about a decade. While no detection was made in this period, it was possible to develop deep understanding about the possible nature of gravitational wave sources and the improvements needed in the instruments to successfully detect gravitational waves.

      A major upgradation of the detectors which would make possible observations at higher sensitivities was undertaken in 2008 and the advanced LIGO detectors were completed in 2014. Observations with these new detectors were to begin from the middle of September 2015. But during the engineering run a few days before the planned commencement of observations, a signal was observed which could be a gravitational wave detection. Since such signals are extremely weak, very careful analysis of the data is required to establish that the signal is indeed produced by a gravitational wave and not due to any spurious effect. After this task was completed and the result was accepted for publication in a reputed scientific journal called Physical Review Letters, the announcement was made at the press conference mentioned above on 11 February 2016. Why is the detection so important, and what new insights does it provide us that the scientific community, and the public at large, was so excited?

      The Italian physicist Galileo Galilei was the first person to use a telescope to observe the sky. He made astonishing discoveries like sunspots, the Moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and stars in the Milky Way. These were totally unexpected phenomena which revealed objects in the sky that had remained unobserved until then. His observations wholly changed the course of science. In the centuries after Galileo, bigger optical telescopes and better instruments to be used with them were built, which greatly increased our knowledge of the Universe.

      In the second half of the twentieth century, technological developments made it possible to build radio, millimetre, infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray and Gamma ray telescopes, some of which have to be used from space. These telescopes all detect electromagnetic waves and together provide us with a multi-wavelength view of the Universe and increasingly deep understanding of how it works. The LIGO detectors work very differently: they detect gravitational waves which are ripples in the structure of space-time, rather than being electromagnetic in nature. So the information that we get from detectors like LIGO simply cannot be obtained using any of the other telescopes mentioned. This is evident from the nature of the first source of gravitational waves detected. It was a system consisting of two massive black holes in orbit around each other, which in a fraction of a second spiralled inwards and merged to form a single black hole, in the process emitting the signal that was detected on 14 September 2015. Since black holes do not emit any electromagnetic radiation, none of the other telescopes could detect the merger, and it would have gone undetected if LIGO was not in operation.

      Metaphorically speaking, it was as if so far we had only one window through which we could ‘see’ the Universe, using the electromagnetic radiation that cosmic objects emit or absorb. However, there are events occurring in the Universe, like the binary black hole merger, which may not emit electromagnetic waves and so would be invisible to our eyes and to our conventional telescopes: they simply cannot be ‘seen’ through the only ‘window’ which was open to us. Like Galileo’s small telescope did, gravitational wave detectors provide us wholly new views of the Universe, taking us from multi-wavelength astronomy to what has become known as multi-messenger astronomy. So we can say that a second ‘window’ in the form of gravitational waves has opened for us through which we can see different views of the

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