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'Update' on gravitational waves

reddoss

By reddoss
in The Astro Lounge

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Ptarmigan

Ptarmigan

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Waves of excitement rippling through the scientific community, even APOD is speechless till the press conference !

This comes AFTER the recent LIGO upgrade, does this mean that the gravity waves are much 'weaker' than previously estimated and where will that leave Einstein's theory ?

 

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symesie04

symesie04

Posted
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11 minutes ago, Ptarmigan said:

Waves of excitement rippling through the scientific community, even APOD is speechless till the press conference !

This comes AFTER the recent LIGO upgrade, does this mean that the gravity waves are much 'weaker' than previously estimated and where will that leave Einstein's theory ?

 

Lacking Gravity?

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Ptarmigan

Ptarmigan

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19 hours ago, Floater said:

It's a wrap!

Sigma 5, I heard ...

(Believe half of what you see, quarter of what you read and nothing of what you hear, is something else I heard.)

It would have to be atleast sigma5 to warrant such publicity and a Nobel,

but why were there no earlier 'indications' at sigma3 from the previous equipment,,,, maybe there was, they just didnt say to anyone,,, except to the fundraisers for the upgrade !

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Physopto

Physopto

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I am astounded at Kip Thorne's announcement that the Graviton has been measured at around the mass of 10-55 grams.

For comparison that  is just 10-58 Kg compared to the mass of the proton at 1.67 x 10-27 Kg and the electron at 9.11 x 10-31 Kg. I have a hard enough time thinking of billions and trillions with all those noughts!

 

Derek

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andrew s

andrew s

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1 hour ago, Physopto said:

I am astounded at Kip Thorne's announcement that the Graviton has been measured at around the mass of 10-55 grams.

For comparison that  is just 10-58 Kg compared to the mass of the proton at 1.67 x 10-27 Kg and the electron at 9.11 x 10-31 Kg. I have a hard enough time thinking of billions and trillions with all those noughts!

 

Derek

I will need to see how they got this figure given that GR is a classical theory and there in no Graviton in it. I wounder what quantum theory of gravity this estimate is based on?

Edit: On reflection I think it will just be based on how close to the speed of light the the wave traveled based on the uncertainties in the distance and timing between the two LIGO detections.

Regards Andrew s

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Physopto

Physopto

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Yes, thanks for that. Phys RevLett tend to be rather important informative publications. This one is a Doosie! The future of this experiment and the Japanese one due on line in 2019 looks promissing for new discoveries and further understanding of our Universe.

Derek

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Ouroboros

Ouroboros

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Is there any information in the data as to which direction the wave came from? I am wondering if there are plans to look with optical telescopes to see what's there.  Also might there be a surge in neutrinos or cosmic rays detected simultaneous with the gravitational wave? 

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andrew s

andrew s

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16 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

Is there any information in the data as to which direction the wave came from? I am wondering if there are plans to look with optical telescopes to see what's there.  Also might there be a surge in neutrinos or cosmic rays detected simultaneous with the gravitational wave? 

On the live announcement they did show a broad area of the sky in the southern sky where the signal came from. However, it was very wide. When more detectors come on line this should improve. Not heard anything about other simultaneous detection's but I suspect that will depend very much on whatelse was near the BHs at the time of merger.

 

Regards Andrew s 

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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The mainstream press has had this all over the USA. They are all agreeing (which is unheard of!) that proves Einstein's prediction and that this is the most important finding of physics - ever. That a new era in the physics of the Universe has just arrived. Thank you all for posting - please keep the news coming.

Oh my!

Dave

 

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CraigT82

CraigT82

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3 minutes ago, baggywrinkle said:

So far we have the press and TV babbling about it. Would be nice to see the hard science, not wanting to put a downer on it but it was the same when BICEP announced its discovery a couple of years ago.

The paper is open access... Take a look for yourself!

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102

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