40 Scientific American, October 2013 Photograph by Tktk Tktk

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The dawn of gravitational wave astronomy

Neil J. CornishMontana State University

Gravity Research in the Rockies

www.tetongravity.com

www.montana.edu/xgi

What is eXtreme Gravity?

Gravity Strength

eXtreme Gravity eXplorers

Ripples in Spacetime

h+ h×

h×

h+

∆L(t) ∼ h(t) L

Detecting Gravitational Waves

Gravitational Wave Telescopes

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Early Morning, September 14 2015

reconstruction of the signal

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Made @ MSU

Rai Weiss

GW150914: A story 40+ years in the making

Kip Thorne Ron Drever

Rai Weiss Kip Thorne Ron Drever

GW150914: A story 40+ years in the making

Earlier claims of detection

Rai Weiss, 1972 design for what became LIGO

R. E. Vogt, R. W. P. Drever, K. S. Thorne, F. J. Raab and R. Weiss (Caltech & MIT), “Construction, operation, and supporting

research and development of a Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave

Observatory”, proposal to NSF, 1989

LIGO Timeline• Conceived in the early 70’s, Chapman, Forward, Weiss

• 1984, Caltech and MIT form LIGO collaboration, jointly lead by Drever, Weiss and Thorne

• 1989 proposal to the National Science Foundation

• 1991 construction approved

• 1998 facility construction complete

• 2002 first observing run for the first generation detectors

• 2015 first observing run for the second generation detectors

LIGO sensitivity over time

Einstein's Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time by Marcia Bartusiak, 2000

Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space by Janna Levin 2016

37 mm 39 m

Where will Gravitational Wave Astronomy be in 400 years?