SLIDE 1 The Universe Speaks
LIGO & the a5empt to detect Gravita:onal Waves
With funding from the Na:onal Science Founda:on PHY-0757058
SLIDE 2 The Universe Speaks
LIGO & the a5empt to detect Gravita:onal Waves
With funding from the Na:onal Science Founda:on PHY-0757058 By William Katzman, LIGO-SEC Program Leader
SLIDE 3
Speaking through light
SLIDE 4
Speaking through light
SLIDE 5
Speaking through light
SLIDE 6
Speaking through light
SLIDE 7
Spectrum
SLIDE 8
What if we could hear the universe?
SLIDE 9 LIGO
Gravitational Wave Observing
- Visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet,
infrared, microwaves, gamma rays are all electromagnetic waves – or LIGHT!
SLIDE 10 LIGO
Gravitational Wave Observing
- Visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet,
infrared, microwaves, gamma rays are all electromagnetic waves – or LIGHT!
- Light can be blocked & scattered...Gravity
waves can’t (practically speaking)
SLIDE 11 LIGO
Gravitational Wave Observing
- Visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet,
infrared, microwaves, gamma rays are all electromagnetic waves – or LIGHT!
- Light can be blocked & scattered...Gravity
waves can’t (practically speaking)
- Light travels through space & time – gravity
is a change OF space-time
SLIDE 12 LIGO
Gravitational Wave Observing
- Visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet,
infrared, microwaves, gamma rays are all electromagnetic waves – or LIGHT!
- Light can be blocked & scattered...Gravity
waves can’t (practically speaking)
- Light travels through space & time – gravity
is a change OF space-time
- Shake a charge you get light.
- Shake a mass you get a gravitational
wave.
SLIDE 13
Newton’s Gravity
Newton’s Gravity
Two Masses attract at a distance. If the sun were to disappear the planets fly off in a straight line immediately.
SLIDE 14
Einstein’s Gravity
SLIDE 15 Warped Space:me – Gravity Fields
- We can use Lycra/Spandex on embroidery
hoops to model space:me & a metal sphere as a star.
- A wave in that fabric is the analogue to a
gravita:onal wave.
SLIDE 16
Gravitational Waves
SLIDE 17
If we could see space-:me…
SLIDE 18
What if we were there?
SLIDE 19 What is a black hole?
- The escape velocity is greater than the speed
- f light.
- Light is the universe’s speed limit.
- Radius of a black hole (non-spinning):
r = (2MG)/ c2 where r is radius M is the mass, G is a constant c is the constant of the speed
- f light
- radius = Mass x 1.5 x 10-27 meters/kg
SLIDE 20 The Observatory
Livingston, Louisiana Hanford, Washington
Supported by NSF grants PHY-0917587, PHY-1506037, PHY-0757058
SLIDE 21
Laser Interferometer
SLIDE 22
The improved laser interferometer
SLIDE 23
The improved laser interferometer
SLIDE 24
Our Control room
SLIDE 25
Our Control room
SLIDE 26
What we saw GW150914
SLIDE 27
What we “heard” GW150914
SLIDE 28 Two black holes collide
SLIDE 29 Two black holes collide
- Frequency change
- Over a billion years ago
SLIDE 30 Two black holes collide
- Frequency change
- Over a billion years ago
- 2 black holes (36 solar mass and 29 solar mass)
SLIDE 31 Two black holes collide
- Frequency change
- Over a billion years ago
- 2 black holes (36 solar mass and 29 solar mass)
- 36 + 29 = 62 + 3 solar mass radiated
– Equivalent to 1 million earth’s energy
SLIDE 32 Two black holes collide
- Frequency change
- Over a billion years ago
- 2 black holes (36 solar mass and 29 solar mass)
- 36 + 29 = 62 + 3 solar mass radiated
– Equivalent to 1 million earth’s energy
- More power than all the stars in the universe
SLIDE 33 Two black holes collide
- Frequency change
- Over a billion years ago
- 2 black holes (36 solar mass and 29 solar mass)
- 36 + 29 = 62 + 3 solar mass radiated
– Equivalent to 1 million earth’s energy
- More power than all the stars in the universe
- Just the beginning…other instruments such as
LISA and the Pulsar Timing Array
SLIDE 34
What we’ve seen so far…
SLIDE 35
Black Holes currently detected
SLIDE 37 Why Care?
- This is pure research…
- May allow us to get a TOE
SLIDE 38 Why Care?
- This is pure research…
- May allow us to get a TOE (Theory of Everything)
SLIDE 39 Why Care?
- This is pure research…
- May allow us to get a TOE (Theory of Everything)
- Current results…include most stable lasers, new
processes for crea:ng mirrors, and smart people
SLIDE 40 Why Care?
- This is pure research…
- May allow us to get a TOE (Theory of Everything)
- Current results…include most stable lasers, new
processes for crea:ng mirrors, and smart people
SLIDE 41 Journey of a G wave
Par:ally funded by the Na:onal Science Founda:on
Bio: Leader of LIGO’s Science Educa:on Center What is LIGO?
