CSIRO technology will boost the search for elusive gravitational waves
One of the Advanced LIGO substrates
that requires both dielectric and gold
coatings. It belongs to a family of optics
called End Reaction Masses.
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CSIRO's Australian Centre for Precision Optics (ACPO) is taking part in an international search for gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of space time thought to have been created by the Big Bang.
ACPO is collaborating with Caltech Institute of Technology on new generation optics to upgrade the existing Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) facility in the United States – a network of detectors designed to search for these elusive waves.
Ten years ago, ACPO supplied the majority of core optics used in the current LIGO detectors. Now, ACPO is working on the optical coatings for a LIGO upgrade. Dubbed the Advanced LIGO, it is poised to become one of the most important scientific instruments of the 21st century. For the first time, this instrument will be able to listen and analyse the sounds of the universe (explosions, collisions, whirlpools) sent out as ripples, or gravitational waves.
Gravitational waves carry with them information about their violent origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot be obtained by conventional astronomical tools. The existence of the waves was predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 in his general theory of relativity.
Although gravitational waves have not yet been detected directly, their influence on a binary pulsar system (two neutron stars orbiting each other) has been measured accurately and is in precise agreement with the predictions. Scientists therefore have great confidence that gravitational waves exist. Direct detection will confirm Einstein's vision of the waves and allow a fascinating and unique view of cataclysms in the cosmos.
In the Advanced LIGO project, the sensitivity of the upgraded detectors will be increased by a factor of ten from current detectors and greatly enhance the chances of finding gravitational waves, with excellent signal strengths. This will allow details of the waveforms to be observed and compared with theories of neutron stars, black holes, and other astrophysical objects moving near the speed of light.
This is important to the field of cosmology and astrophysics to gain better understanding of the formation mechanisms and characteristics of matter in the universe. Gravitational waves are 'big science' and are one of the remaining great mysteries of nature for humans to discover and understand. Once we start detecting these waves who knows where it will lead and what we will learn about the universe, our galaxy, the sun, our planet and possibly life here on earth and elsewhere.
The upgraded instruments will be ready to start scientific operation in 2014 and will transform gravitational wave science into a real observational tool. |
