Gravitational Waves Detected!
Roughly 1.3 billion years ago, around the time multicellular life was starting to spread on Earth, a pair of black holes collided and released a torrent of gravitational energy into the cosmos. Today, physicists announced they had spotted that energy here on Earth.
We congratulate the researchers and scientists of LIGO Scientific Collaboration and VIRGO Collaboration for their detection of gravitational waves, confirming Einstein’s prediction from 100 years ago! Research published in Review of Scientific Instruments contributed to this discovery. Purchase the collection. Physics is awesome!
Table of Contents
The advanced LIGO input optics
Thermal effects in the Input Optics of the Enhanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory interferometers
Active noise cancellation in a suspended interferometer
Damping and local control of mirror suspensions for laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors
A tool for measuring the bending length in thin wires
A technique for continuous measurement of the quality factor of mechanical oscillators
A high precision, compact electromechanical ground rotation sensor
Design and initial characterization of a compact, ultra high vacuum compatible, low frequency, tilt accelerometer
A step-wise steerable source of illumination for low-noise “Violin-Mode” shadow sensors, intended for use in interferometric gravitational wave detectors
State observers and Kalman filtering for high performance vibration isolation systems
A low-noise transimpedance amplifier for the detection of “Violin-Mode” resonances in advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory suspensions