The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) is a scientific collaboration of international physics institutes and research groups dedicated to the search for

gravitational waves Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that Wave propagation, propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliv ...

History

The LSC was established in 1997, under the leadership of

Barry Barish Barry Clark Barish (born January 27, 1936) is an American experimental physicist and Nobel Laureate. He is a Linde Professor of Physics, emeritus at California Institute of Technology and a leading expert on gravitational waves. In 2017, Bar ...

. Its mission is to ensure equal scientific opportunity for individual participants and institutions by organizing research, publications, and all other scientific activities, and it includes scientists from both LIGO Laboratory and collaborating institutions. Barish appointed

Rainer Weiss Rainer "Rai" Weiss ( , ; born September 29, 1932) is an American physicist, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. He is a professor of physics emeritus at MIT and an adjunct professor at LSU. He is best known fo ...

as the first spokesperson. LSC members have access to the US-based

Advanced LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Two large ...

detectors A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...

Hanford, Washington Hanford was a small agricultural community in Benton County, Washington, United States. It and White Bluffs, Washington, White Bluffs were depopulated in 1943 in order to make room for the nuclear production facility known as the Hanford Site. The ...

and in

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, Washin ...

, as well as the

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 Opt ...

detector in

Sarstedt Sarstedt is a town in the district of Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany. It has approximately 18,500 inhabitants. Sarstedt is situated 20 km south of Hanover and 10 km north of Hildesheim. Sarstedt station is on the Hanoverian Southern ...

, Germany. Under an agreement with the

European Gravitational Observatory The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) is a consortium established to manage the Virgo interferometric antenna and its related infrastructure, as well as to promote cooperation in the field of gravitational wave research in Europe. It was ...

(EGO), LSC members also have access to data from the Virgo detector in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

, Italy. While the LSC and the Virgo Collaboration are separate organizations, they cooperate closely and are referred to collectively as "LVC". The

KAGRA The Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA), is a large interferometer designed to detect gravitational waves predicted by the general theory of relativity. KAGRA is a Michelson interferometer that is isolated from external disturbances: its m ...

observatory's collaboration has joined the LIGO-Virgo collective, and the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collective is called "LVK". The current LSC Spokesperson is Patrick Brady of

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. The Executive Director of the LIGO Laboratory is

David Reitze David Howard Reitze (born 6 January 1961) is an American laser physicist who is Professor of Physics at the University of Florida and served as the scientific spokesman of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) experimen ...

from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. On 11 February 2016, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announced that they succeeded in making the first direct

gravitational wave observation Gravitational-wave astronomy is an emerging branch of observational astronomy which aims to use gravitational waves (minute distortions of spacetime predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity) to collect observational data about ...

on 14 September 2015. In 2016, Barish received the

Enrico Fermi Prize The Enrico Fermi Prize, first awarded in 2001, is given by the Italian Physical Society (Società Italiana di Fisica). It is a yearly award of €30,000 honoring one or more Members of the Society who have "particularly honoured physics with thei ...

"for his fundamental contributions to the formation of the LIGO and LIGO-Virgo scientific collaborations and for his role in addressing challenging technological and scientific aspects whose solution led to the first detection of gravitational waves".

Collaboration members

Membership of LIGO Scientific Collaboration as of November 2015 is detailed in the table below.

Notes

References

External links

*
LIGO Magazine
{{Gravitational waves Gravitational-wave astronomy Astronomy in the United States Organizations based in California Organizations based in Massachusetts Organizations established in 1997 Albert Einstein Medal recipients