Jose Vera

LIGOs Direct Observation of Gravitational Waves

Scientist at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)
have recently announced that gravitational waves have been directly
detected, as predicted by Albert Einstein. The direct observation of
gravitational waves radiating from a merger between two black holes is the
last major prediction of General Relativity and constitutes a groundbreaking
discovery in the world of physics. This technical description will explore the
world of physics and describe what gravitational waves are, how they work,
and how they were detected so that physics enthusiasts understand what
happened and can fathom the magnitude of the event.

Gravitational Waves
Before Albert Einstein, the force of gravity was very poorly understood and
very limited in its use. Isaac Newton had done a great job at describing
gravity on Earth, but his mathematics and physics broke down and become
imprecise when attempting to observe the nature of objects outside of our
atmosphere. Aside from this, Newtons life took place before fields like
electromagnetism and nuclear physics were developed, so his theory didnt
explain how all of these forces intertwine.
In an attempt to unify all forces and ideas, Einstein proposed his General
Theory of Relativy a century ago in 1915. In this theory, he described and
explained how masses cause distortions in the fabric of space time and, as a
result, generate an attractive force called gravity (See figure 1).

Jose Vera

Figure 1. Massive bodies warp Space-Time. https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/image/ligo20160211e

Einstein theorized that large accelerating masses could increasingly disrupt

space-time in such a way that distortions of space would propagate from the
source in the form of a wave, much like ripples in a water pond (See figure
2). These waves would travel at the speed of light from the source and could
carry large amounts of energy depending on the magnitude of the mass that
propagates them. Einsteins mathematics showed that these waves could
propagate in a large enough manner to be detected if two massive black
holes in a binary system were to orbit each other increasingly into the point
of merging together.

Figure 2. Illustration of two black holes continuously accelerating into a merger.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2016/feb/15/new-insights-emerge-from-ligo-gravitationalwave-data

Jose Vera

He predicted that the energy released in this sort of merger would be strong
enough to be detected millions of light years away, and he was right.
Gravitational waves emerging from a binary star system of black holes are
strong enough to significantly distort space time and stretch and compact all
of the masses that they propagate through. Depending on the distance from
the source, this effect can be small or large, but still significant. To actively
seek them out on Earth, the LIGO observatories were created.

LIGOs Detection
The LIGO observatories (LIGO
Livingston and LIGO Hanford) are
unlike any other observatories in the
world. They do not look for
electromagnetic radiation, but
rather feel for the disruptions of
space time that massive objects in
the universe might create. They
consist of two perfectly straight and
exact 4 Km (2.5 mi) long
vacuum tubes arranged
Figure 3. LIGO Livingston. LIGO Caltech.
https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/image/ligo2015073
perpendicularly, or L
1c
shaped (See figure 3).

These observatories use an investigative tool called an interferometer, which

emits light from two or more sources and merges them together to create an
interference pattern. The interferometer at LIGO emits a principal laser that
is split in two directions and then reflected back and forth about 280 times.
In theory, because both arms of the interferometer are the same length, the
frequencies should line up perfectly and cancel each other out, leaving no
measureable residual radiation. Gravitational waves that might pass by Earth
would stretch and compact the planet enough to cycle the length of the arms
and leave a residual radiation pattern, confirming its existence.
On September of 2015, the LIGO observatories detected residual radiation of
a patter indicative of gravitational waves. It was concluded that the arms had
their length cyclically changed by fraction of a proton. After months of
calculations and making sure that there was no error or false positive, on
February 14th of 2016, the LIGO observatories affirmed that the variance was
in fact due to the passing of Gravitational Waves.
This serves as proof of the last major prediction of Einsteins General Theory
of Relativity. It has changed the way the we view our world, and this
3

Jose Vera

discovery opens up new ways to look at how the universe works. It clears the
path for all the new physicist that might do research one day by adding a
new field to focus their studies on. It gives us an insight on how we are
constantly finding out more about the universe and of how there is much left
to still understand.

Sources
LIGO Lab | Caltech | MIT. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2016, from
https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/

A. Einstein, Nherungsweise Intergation der Feldgleichungen der Gravitation,

Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
(Berlin, June 22, 1916) pp. 688-696; English translation (translated by
Alfred Engel) in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 6: The
Berlin Years: Writings, 1914-1917 (English translation supplement,
Princeton University Press,
http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol6-trans).