Gravity waves detected for the first time ever

danshawen said:
Without relativity, our pennies don't even possess two states, and without time and time's arrow, there is no preferred direction for the propagation of unbound energy.
Click to expand...

Agreed

But realitivity is perspective.

For bound energy that is matter, there isn't a preferred direction of propagation, nor is there a preferred inertial reference frame. And even though, as far as we know, there is no conservation of angular momentum that applies directly to quantum spin as it does to gyroscopes, evidently spinning at the speed of light does follow certain other rules, such as the fact that there does not seem to be a preferred physical direction that corresponds one to one with a preferred direction of propagation of unbound energy for a spinning body on our scale of things.
Click to expand...

Interesting

Time and its arrow derives of quantum spin. If you prefer to concentrate on probabilities instead of time, you leave loose ends that manifest as differences in descriptions of nature between time based GR and the probability based descriptions of the SM
Click to expand...

Hmmm

We live in a universe composed of energy transfer events. If your description of nature is different from that conceptual paradigm, maybe it shouldn't be.
Click to expand...

We do
 
Schmelzer said:
The people who follow the "shut up and calculate" ideology do exactly this - they calculate what can be easily calculated, following the prescriptions of the heroes of the past like Feynman, and shut up about fundamental problems.

This ideology was, in some sense, quite helpful, because there have been a lot of practical problems in quantum theory, and to solve them the pragmatical Copenhagen rules were sufficient, and a better understanding of the fundamental problems was simply unnecessary. And all this was sufficient to develop one of the greatest theories we have - the standard model of particle physics.

This does not mean that those who do the computations do not know what the fundamental problems are. Or that there has been no progress at all in these domains. (In fact, with Wilson we have today a much better understanding of renormalization and all this.) Or that there is disagreement between me and the mainstream about what are fundamental problems. There is only some difference in interest - I'm more interested in fundamental problems than the mainstream - and some difference in opinion of how they may be solved.
Click to expand...
Who gives a crap Schmelzer. That's your problem. Nobody gives a crap. There is no disagreement between you and the mainstream. To have that somebody would have to give a crap.
 
James R said:
Rumour has it that there is a paper in the works. I assume that any official announcement will have to wait until after publication.
Click to expand...
brucep said:
Phys.org. It would be great but I'm waiting for the official description. Kinda view Phys.org as the paparazzi of science. Without any pictures.
Click to expand...
Xelasnave.1947 said:
Past experience tells me to wait for a paper.
Click to expand...
Found this tweet this morning:
https://twitter.com/ego_virgo/status/697440846464073728
 
News Release • February 11, 2016

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/WA/news/ligo20160211

Gravitational Waves Detected 100 Years After Einstein's Prediction

News Release • February 11, 2016

LIGO Opens New Window on the Universe with Observation of Gravitational Waves from Colliding Black Holes

WASHINGTON, DC/Cascina, Italy

For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at the earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window onto the cosmos.

Gravitational waves carry information about their dramatic origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot otherwise be obtained. Physicists have concluded that the detected gravitational waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. This collision of two black holes had been predicted but never observed.
Click to expand...
 
The physics review letters site has apparently gone down under the load of people trying to view the article of the discovery.
 
I watched online until they ended the feed. Congratulations to LIGO and to Einstein!
 
Meanwhile, APoD↱ offers a pretty graphic:

​

Caption excerpt:

The featured illustration depicts the two merging black holes with the signal strength of the two detectors over 0.3 seconds superimposed across the bottom. Expected future detections by Advanced LIGO and other gravitational wave detectors may not only confirm the spectacular nature of this measurement but hold tremendous promise of giving humanity a new way to see and explore our universe.​
____________________

Notes:

Nemiroff, Robert and Jerry Bonnell. "LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves from Merging Black Holes". Astronomy Picture of the Day. 11 February 2016. APOD.NASA.gov. 11 February 2016. http://go.nasa.gov/1o77LF2
 
On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of $$1.0 \times 10^{-21}$$. It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1σ. The source lies at a luminosity distance of $$410^{+160}_{-180} \, \textrm{Mpc}$$ corresponding to a redshift $$z=0.09^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$$. In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are $$36^{+5}_{-4} M_{\odot}$$ and $$29^{+4}_{-4} M_{\odot}$$, and the final black hole mass is $$62^{+4}_{-4} M_{\odot}$$, with $$3.0^{+0.5}_{-0.5} M_{\odot} c^2$$ radiated in gravitational waves. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals. These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.
Click to expand...

http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102
 
sweetpea said:
News Release • February 11, 2016

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/WA/news/ligo20160211
Click to expand...
Astounding work. All these years working through the limitations a ground based gravity wave interferometer presents. The source prediction is phenomenal. Merging black holes. I wonder how they crossed each others coordinate singularity. lol LOL. Really stoked for these science teams. The computer simulation is an awesome tool. Cosmology and tests for GR are my favorite subjects. I'm flabbergasted as my dad used to say.

The cite base for these papers will be huge. Awesome.
 
Amazing. I would have lost that bet, big time.

The final merger of the Hulse-Taylor pulsar-BH binary in September output gravity waves equivalent to the converted energy of three solar masses (brighter than the brightest supernova event). An amazing accomplishment for LIGO to have captured that. Congratulations, Kip and the LIGO team! Happy Centenary, Einstein's GR.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top