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GEO 600
GEO600 is a gravitational wave detector located near Sarstedt, a town 20 km to the south of Hanover, Germany. It is designed and operated by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and the Leibniz Universität Hannover, along with University of Glasgow, University of Birmingham and Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, and is funded by the Max Planck Society and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). GEO600 is capable of detecting gravitational waves in the frequency range 50 Hz to 1.5 kHz, and is part of a worldwide network of gravitational wave detectors. This instrument, and its sister interferometric detectors, when operational, are some of the most sensitive gravitational wave detectors ever designed. They are designed to detect relative changes in distance of the order of 10−21, about the size of a single atom compared to the distance from the Sun to the Earth. Construction on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gravitational Wave Detector
A gravitational-wave detector (used in a gravitational-wave observatory) is any device designed to measure tiny distortions of spacetime called gravitational waves. Since the 1960s, various kinds of gravitational-wave detectors have been built and constantly improved. The present-day generation of laser interferometers has reached the necessary sensitivity to detect gravitational waves from astronomical sources, thus forming the primary tool of gravitational-wave astronomy. The first direct detection of gravitational waves made in 2015 by the Advanced LIGO observatories, a feat which was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. Challenge The direct detection of gravitational waves is complicated by the extraordinarily small effect the waves produce on a detector. The amplitude of a spherical wave falls off as the inverse of the distance from the source. Thus, even waves from extreme systems such as merging binary black holes die out to a very small amplitude by the time they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Drever
Ronald William Prest Drever (26 October 1931 – 7 March 2017) was a Scottish experimental physicist. He was a professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, co-founded the LIGO project, and was a co-inventor of the Pound–Drever–Hall technique for laser stabilisation, as well as the Hughes–Drever experiment. This work was instrumental in the First observation of gravitational waves, first detection of gravitational waves in September 2015. Drever died on 7 March 2017, aged 85, seven months before his colleagues Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Barry Barish won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on the observation of gravitational waves. The trio of Drever, Thorne and Weiss shared several major physics prizes in 2016, so it is widely believed that Drever would have won the Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in the place of Barry Barish had he not died before the Nobel Committee for Physics, Nobel Committee made their decision. Education Drever was educat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Scientist
''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishes a monthly Dutch-language edition. First published on 22 November 1956, ''New Scientist'' has been available in online form since 1996. Sold in retail outlets (paper edition) and on subscription (paper and/or online), the magazine covers news, features, reviews and commentary on science, technology and their implications. ''New Scientist'' also publishes speculative articles, ranging from the technical to the philosophical. ''New Scientist'' was acquired by Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) in March 2021. History Ownership The magazine was founded in 1956 by Tom Margerison, Max Raison and Nicholas Harrison as ''The New Scientist'', with Issue 1 on 22 November 1956, priced at one shilling (a twentieth of a pound in pre-decimal UK cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phys
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which relates to the order of nature, or, in other words, to the regular succession of events." Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines, with its main goal being to understand how the universe behaves. "Physics is one of the most fundamental of the sciences. Scientists of all disciplines use the ideas of physics, including chemists who study the structure of molecules, paleontologists who try to reconstruct how dinosaurs walked, and climatologists who study how human activities affect the atmosphere and oceans. Physics is also the foundation of all engineering and technology. No engineer could design a flat-screen TV, an interplanetary spacecraft, or even a better mousetrap without first understanding the basic laws of physics. (. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Observation Of Gravitational Waves
The first direct observation of gravitational waves was made on 14 September 2015 and was announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016. Previously, gravitational waves had been inferred only indirectly, via their effect on the timing of pulsars in binary star systems. The waveform, detected by both LIGO observatories, matched the predictions of general relativity for a gravitational wave emanating from the inward spiral and merger of a pair of black holes of around 36 and 29 solar masses and the subsequent "ringdown" of the single resulting black hole. The signal was named GW150914 (from ''gravitational wave'' and the date of observation 2015-09-14). It was also the first observation of a binary black hole merger, demonstrating both the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems and the fact that such mergers could occur within the current age of the universe. This first direct observation was reported around the world as a remarkable accompl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanford Site
The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including SiteW and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the site was home to the Hanford Engineer Works and B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first atomic bomb, which was tested in the Trinity nuclear test, and in the Fat Man bomb that was used in the bombing of Nagasaki. During the Cold War, the project expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing complexes, which produced plutonium for most of the more than sixty thousand weapons built for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Nuclear technology developed rapidly during this period, and Hanford scientists produced major technological ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Livingston, Louisiana
Livingston is the parish seat of Livingston Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,769 at the 2010 census. Livingston hosts one of the two LIGO gravitational wave detector sites, the other one being located in Hanford, Washington. History Like the parish, Livingston takes its name from the jurist Edward Livingston. Livingston was the site of a major train derailment in 1982. On February 11 of 2016, it was officially announced that the LIGO collaboration successfully made the first direct observation of gravitational waves in September 2015. Barry Barish, Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for leading this work. Geography Livingston is located at (30.498721, -90.748371). According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land. The communities of Doyle and Livingston, combined in 1955 to create the Town of Livingston. Doyle was established northeast of present-day Livingston, located on Hog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Squeezed Vacuum
In physics, a squeezed coherent state is a quantum state that is usually described by two non-commuting observables having continuous spectra of eigenvalues. Examples are position x and momentum p of a particle, and the (dimension-less) electric field in the amplitude X (phase 0) and in the mode Y (phase 90°) of a light wave (the wave's quadratures). The product of the standard deviations of two such operators obeys the uncertainty principle: :\Delta x \Delta p \geq \frac2\; and \;\Delta X \Delta Y \geq \frac4 , respectively. Trivial examples, which are in fact not squeezed, are the ground state , 0\rangle of the quantum harmonic oscillator and the family of coherent states , \alpha\rangle. These states saturate the uncertainty above and have a symmetric distribution of the operator uncertainties with \Delta x_g = \Delta p_g in "natural oscillator units" and \Delta X_g = \Delta Y_g = 1/2. (In literature different normalizations for the quadrature amplitudes are u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Squeezed Coherent State
In physics, a squeezed coherent state is a quantum state that is usually described by two non-commuting observables having continuous spectra of eigenvalues. Examples are position x and momentum p of a particle, and the (dimension-less) electric field in the amplitude X (phase 0) and in the mode Y (phase 90°) of a light wave (the wave's quadratures). The product of the standard deviations of two such operators obeys the uncertainty principle: :\Delta x \Delta p \geq \frac2\; and \;\Delta X \Delta Y \geq \frac4 , respectively. Trivial examples, which are in fact not squeezed, are the ground state , 0\rangle of the quantum harmonic oscillator and the family of coherent states , \alpha\rangle. These states saturate the uncertainty above and have a symmetric distribution of the operator uncertainties with \Delta x_g = \Delta p_g in "natural oscillator units" and \Delta X_g = \Delta Y_g = 1/2. (In literature different normalizations for the quadrature amplitudes are u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homodyne Detection
In electrical engineering, homodyne detection is a method of extracting information encoded as modulation of the phase and/or frequency of an oscillating signal, by comparing that signal with a standard oscillation that would be identical to the signal if it carried null information. "Homodyne" signifies a single frequency, in contrast to the dual frequencies employed in heterodyne detection. When applied to processing of the reflected signal in remote sensing for topography, homodyne detection lacks the ability of heterodyne detection to determine the size of a static discontinuity in elevation between two locations. (If there is a path between the two locations with smoothly changing elevation, then homodyne detection may in principle be able to track the signal phase along the path if sampling is dense enough). Homodyne detection is more readily applicable to velocity sensing. In optics In optical interferometry, homodyne signifies that ''the reference radiation'' (i.e. the lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ground Motion
Ground motion is the movement of the earth's surface from earthquakes or explosions. Ground motion is produced by seismic waves that are generated by sudden slip on a fault or sudden pressure at the explosive source and travel through the earth and along its surface. This can be due to natural events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, or human activities, such as the detonation of nuclear weapons. There are two main types of seismic waves: body waves and surface waves. Body waves travel through the interior of the earth, while surface waves travel along the earth's surface. Ground motion is typically caused by surface waves, which are the most destructive type of seismic waves. Ground motion is measured using a seismometer, a device that detects and records the movement of the earth's surface. Seismometers are used by seismologists to study earthquakes and other types of ground motion. The recordings produced by a seismometer are known as seismograms, and they can be use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michelson Interferometer
The Michelson interferometer is a common configuration for optical interferometry and was invented by the 19/20th-century American physicist Albert Abraham Michelson. Using a beam splitter, a light source is split into two arms. Each of those light beams is reflected back toward the beamsplitter which then combines their amplitudes using the superposition principle. The resulting interference pattern that is not directed back toward the source is typically directed to some type of photoelectric detector or camera. For different applications of the interferometer, the two light paths can be with different lengths or incorporate optical elements or even materials under test. The Michelson interferometer (among other interferometer configurations) is employed in many scientific experiments and became well known for its use by Michelson and Edward Morley in the famous Michelson–Morley experiment (1887) in a configuration which would have detected the Earth's motion through the sup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
