Bulletin of the American Physical Society
77th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the APS
Volume 55, Number 10
Wednesday–Saturday, October 20–23, 2010; Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Session BB: Gravitational Waves |
Hide Abstracts |
Chair: Gabriela Gonzalez, Louisiana State University Room: Nicholson Hall 109 |
Thursday, October 21, 2010 8:30AM - 9:00AM |
BB.00001: LIGO and the bright future of gravitational wave astronomy Invited Speaker: The three LIGO gravitational wave detectors in the Livingston and Hanford Observatories have operated at their design sensitivity until October 2007, by collecting one year of triple coincidence data. An upgrade of the two 4 km detectors further improved their sensitivity, and new science data were collected until October 2010 in the S6 science run. The enhanced detectors not only reached their best sensitivity ever, but also proved the technology which will be implemented in the Advanced LIGO detectors. Since October 2010, both the LIGO sites will see a major upgrade which will culminate in the next few years with about 10 times more sensitivity, starting the era of gravitational wave astronomy. In this talk, the recent performance and results of the S6 science run will be presented, together with an overview of the upcoming upgrades which will bring Advanced LIGO to detect gravitational waves. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, October 21, 2010 9:00AM - 9:30AM |
BB.00002: Searches for Gravitational Waves in LIGO Data Invited Speaker: I will discuss the challenges involved in searches for gravitational waves in LIGO data. I will give an overview of some of the sources searched for like pulsars, supernovae, and neutron star / black hole binary coalescences. I will also discuss the challenges posed by non-stationary and non-Gaussian noise transients, and methods for improving confidence in a prospective detection. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, October 21, 2010 9:30AM - 10:00AM |
BB.00003: Introducing NINJA: A Gravitation Wave Community Project Invited Speaker: A world-wide network of gravitation wave detectors is operational. Fortunately one of the most important sources of gravitational waves, the coalescence of two black holes, is now routinely computed by numerical relativity. The Numerical Injection Analysis Project (NINJA) was formed to study the sensitivity of gravitational-wave analysis pipelines to numerical simulations of waveforms and foster close collaboration between numerical relativists and data analysts. This talk will summarize the results of the first NINJA project and introduce the goals of the second. ~ [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, October 21, 2010 10:00AM - 10:30AM |
BB.00004: LISA Overview Invited Speaker: The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will complement the ground-based interferometric gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO and VIRGO the same way infrared telescopes complement optical telescopes. LISA will measure gravitational waves in the mHz frequency range where for example super-massive black hole mergers release most of their energy. It will consist of three spacecraft in a heliocentric orbit trailing earth by 20 deg. The three spacecraft will be separated by 17s light travel time and will form a near equilateral triangle. Two subsystems form the core of LISA. Free falling proof masses inside each spacecraft will be used as gravitational reference sensors (GRS). The residual forces on these proof masses will have to be in the order of fN/rtHz in the LISA band. The interferometry measurement system (IMS) will measure changes in the distances between these free falling proof masses with pm/rtHz sensitivity. I will briefly describe the overwhelming science case for LISA, discuss the GRS and the status of the LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission which is scheduled to launch late 2012. LPF's only purpose is to test this subsystem for LISA. I will then focus on the IMS, present the concept and discuss ongoing experimental research in the US and in Europe. [Preview Abstract] |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700