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Gravitationalwaves:Einsteinslegacy

Gravitationalwaves:Einsteins
legacy19February,2016
KudosNewCropInsurancescheme:
BuildingtheFuture01
February,2016

A+

VinodKumar*
GravitationalWaves(GW)werethelastpredictionofAlbertEinsteinstheoryofrelativity.Thefirstdirect
detection of gravitational waves was announced on 11 February by the Advanced Laser Interferometer
GravitationalWaveObservatory(LIGO).UsingLIGO'stwingiantdetectorsoneinLivingston,Louisiana,
andtheotherinHanford,Washingtonresearchersmeasuredripplesinspacetimeproducedbyacollision
betweentwoblackholes.ThisisthefirstmajordetectionbyLIGOexperimentsaftermorethanadecadein
operation.Thenewdiscoveryistrulyincrediblescienceandmarksthreemilestonesforphysics:
1.Directdetectionofgravitationalwaves.
2.Thefirstdetectionofabinaryblackholesystem.
3. The most convincing evidence to date that natures black holes are the objects as predicted by
Einsteinstheory.

AccordingtoNewtonianphysics,gravityisaforcewhichmakestwobodieswithmassattractseachother.
Einstein in the year 1915, with his radical General theory of relativity, gave a complete new perspective of
gravity. The concept is mathematical and quite sophisticated, but can be defined simply as Matter curves
spaceandobjectsrespondstothatcurvature.i.e.Gravityisnotaforceassuch,butacurvaturecausedinthe
spacetimefabricduetothepresenceofanobjectwithmass.Tovisualizeit,imagineaballinastretchedrubber
sheet,thepresenceoftheballcausesadiptoformandthesheetcurvesdependingontheweightoftheball,
now another smaller ball, if rolled to the bigger ball follows the curved space. Roughly this is how earth
revolvesaroundthesun.Eventhoughthisanalogyisnottruecentpercent,forvisualizationthiswillsuffice.
General theory of relativity makes prediction far beyond the familiar gravity. A few of them are: Time
Dilation,indistinctbutsimilarmannermassdistortsthetimetoo.Flowoftimechangesw.r.t.theproximityof
mass.Thetimethatoneexperienceneartosunisvastlydifferentfromthatonedoonearth.Deflectionoflight
thatweseeGravitationalLensing.DraggingofspacetimebyspinningobjectsFrameDragging.Thebeauty
ofEinsteinsworkliesinthefactthateachoneofhispredictionsarephysicallytestedandverified.Therewas
onelastincrediblepredictionwhichwasneverdirectlyobserved,i.e.Gravitationalwaves.Nowthisishistory!
The denser the mass is, the greater the curvature of spacetime. As objects with mass move around in
spacetime,thecurvaturealsochangestothetrailofthemovingmasses.Attimes,acceleratingobjectsgenerate
changesinthiscurvature,whichpropagateoutwardsinawavelikemanner.Thesepropagatingphenomenaare
knownasgravitationalwaves.Theseareoutflowingfluctuationsofexpandingandcontractingspacetime.Not
allmovementscreateGravitationalwavesyouneedtochangetheQuadrupolemomentofamassdistribution.
Simplyput,itmeansmotionshouldnotbeperfectlysphericallysymmetricorcylindricallysymmetric.
o

A spinning disk will not radiate. This can be regarded as a consequence of the principle
ofconservationofangularmomentum.

o An isolated nonspinning solid object moving at a constant velocity will not radiate. This can be
regardedasaconsequenceoftheprincipleofconservationoflinearmomentum.
But, Two objects orbiting each other in a planar orbit such as a planet orbiting the Sun or a binary star
systemorthemergingoftwoblackholeswillradiateGravitationalwaves!
LIGO have detected signals of gravitational waves from two merging black holes 1.3 billion years ago!
These Gwaves propagate at the speed of light, unlike the Newtonian gravity which propagates at infinite
speed. This speed limit comes from the fact that speed of light is built into Einsteins field equations.
Therefore,forallmasslessthingsthisistheultimatespeedlimit.SinceGwavesaredistortionsinspacetime,if
itpassesthroughafreestandingbody,thebodymayexperiencerhythmicstretchingorshortening,withoutan
unbalancedexternalforce!Butyoumaynotevennoticethisstretching,onereasonbeingthatthesestretchings
arenegligiblyminiscule,otherreason,everythinggetsstretchedequally,nullifyingtheeffect.Butthereisone
entitythatisabsolute,anuniversalconstantthespeedoflightc,LIGOusesthispropertyofLight(using
LASERs)to measureminutechangesinthe spacetime continuum. The precision that LIGOrequires for this
kindofdetectioncanbecomparedtomeasuringthedistancebetweenMilkyWayandAndromedagalaxy(2.5
millionLightyearsaway)tothescaleofthewidthofahair.
Gravity, being a very very weak force, when compared to nuclear force or electrostatic force, one
needsreallyreallymassiveobjectorsomethingacceleratingatahighratetohaveGwavescapableofbeing
detected.Gravitationalwavescarryenergyawayfromtheirsourcesand,inthecaseoforbitingbodies,thisis
associated with an inspiral or decrease in orbit. Higher acceleration generates powerful gravitational waves,
sincethesehugesystemsgeneratingGwavesaremillionsoflightyearsawaythepowerthatreachesonearth
isminuscule.Orbitallifetimesofbinarysystemswhichhavehighaccelerationareoneofthemostimportant
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propertiesofgravitationalradiationsources.Itdeterminestheaveragenumberofbinarystarsintheuniverse
thatarecloseenoughtobedetected.Shortlifetimebinaries,i.e.systemswhichhaveimminentmerger/collapse
arestrongsourcesofgravitationalradiationbutarefewinnumber.Longlifetimebinariesaremoreplentiful
buttheyareweaksourcesofgravitationalwaves.LIGOismostsensitiveinthefrequencybandwherebinary
systemsareabouttoinspiral,i.e.abouttomerge.Inspiralsareveryimportantsourcesofgravitationalwaves.
Any time two objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, or black holes are in close orbits, they send out
intense gravitational waves. As they spiral closer to each other, these waves become intense. At some point
theyshouldbecomesointensethatdirectdetectionbytheireffectonobjectsonEarthispossible.Thistime
frameisonlyafewseconds.LIGOachievedsensitivitiestodetectsuchamicroscopicblipinthecosmicnoise
afteramultiyearshutdownandanupgrade.
GWavescanpassthroughanyinterveningmatterwithoutbeingscatteredsignificantly.Whilelight
from distant stars may be blocked out by interstellar dust, gravitational waves will pass through essentially
unimpeded. This feature allows GWaves to carry information about astronomical phenomena never before
observedbyhumans.WiththisdetectionwewillbeabletoturntheUniverseintoourownlaboratory!There
aremanythingsthatwecannotreplicatehereonEarth,likethedensecoresofneutronstars,strangenessofa
black hole singularity or an event horizon. Under extreme conditions like this, nuclear physics and
thermodynamics can theoretically do some interesting things. However, we can't investigate those directly
becausewecannotcreatetheseenvironmentsourselves.Therulesofquantummechanicssaythatthereought
tobeaparticlecounterparttogwaves,theyarehypotheticalparticlescalledgravitons.Nowwestandahigher
probabilityinfindingthoseexoticparticles.

GravitationalwaveastronomysfinestmomentisalsoIndias.The Indian scientificcommunity has made

seminal contributions to gravitationalwave physics over the last couple of decades. The group at RRI,
Bangalore led by Bala R. Iyer (currently at ICTSTIFR) in collaboration with a group of French scientists
pioneered the theoretical calculations used to model gravitationalwave signals from orbiting black holes. In
parallel,thegroupofatIUCAA,Punedidfoundationalworkondevelopingthedataanalysistechniquesused
todetecttheseweaksignalsburiedinthedetectornoise.Overthelastdecade,theIndiangravitationalwave
community had expanded to a number of institutions. The Indian participation in the LIGO Scientific
Collaboration, under the umbrella of the Indian Initiative in GravitationalWave Observations (IndIGO),
includes scientists from Chennai Mathematical Institute, ICTSTIFR Bangalore, IISER Kolkata, IISER
Trivandrum, IIT Gandhinagar, Institute for Plasma Research Gandhinagar, IUCAA Pune, Raja Ramanna
CentreforAdvancedTechnologyIndoreandTIFRMumbai.
TheICTSTIFRgroupmadesignificant,directcontributionsinobtainingestimatesofthemassandspinof
the final black hole, and the energy and peak power radiated in gravitational waves. The group has also
contributedtotheastrophysicalinterpretationofthebinaryblackholemerger.
TheICTSTIFRgroupdesignedandimplementedoneofthetestsofgeneralrelativitythathaveshownthat
the current observation is completely consistent with a binary black hole collision in Einsteins theory.
Researchers from CMI Chennai, IISER Trivandrum and IISER Kolkata were actively involved in the
implementationofthistest.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the role of Indian scientists who were part of the team that
discovered gravitational waves. In a series of tweets, Prime minister added, "The historic detection of
gravitationalwaveswillopenupnewfrontierforunderstandingofuniverse.Hopetomoveforwardtomake
evenbiggercontributionwithanadvancedgravitationalwavedetectorinthecountry."
This discovery is sure to usher a new era in Gravitational wave astronomy and will enable us in finding
answerstofundamentalquestionsontheoriginoftheuniverse,onhowaprimordialsingularityBig Banged
intothevastvistasofthecosmos.

*VinodKumar isAssistantDirector,DoordarshanNews,NewDelhi

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