The search for gravitational waves

by Prof. M. Cerdonio (INFN)

Wednesday 13 Nov 2002, 17:00 → 18:00 Europe/Zurich

UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE Stückelberg Auditorium

Gravitational waves are still eluding detection: we are still blind to the direct messages sent out and carried by one of the fundamental forces of Nature, just when it is so strong to exploit the full physics of GR, as in processes involving black-holes, and when it overcomes in strength all the other fundamental interactions, as in matter at extreme densities. Presently the future of the research field looks bright. Resonant mass 'bar' detectors have been improved by 4 orders of magnitude in energy sensitivity. Now a 2300 kg resonant bar detects a few thousand of quanta of vibration. AURIGA, EXPLORER and NAUTILUS in Europe, ALLEGRO in USA and NIOBE in Australia, have been operated for 4 years as a network, giving upper limits to the yearly rate of violent gw events in the Galaxy. A first generation of km baseline interferometric detectors, GEO 0.6 km and VIRGO 3km in Europe, two 4 km LIGO and one 2km LIGO in USA, and TAMA 0.3 km in Japan, is coming to operation, with unprecedented wideband and sensitivity. They, complemented by the upgraded bars, will make for a global network, which is expected to give a first detection in the next few years. It is commonly accepted that the 'observatory phase' will start after a substantial upgrade of the present detectors. 'Dual' resonators are under study to get wideband best sensitivities in kHz frequency range. Design studies are in progress for an 'advanced' LIGO2 in US and for a 4km, cryogenic mirrors, interferometer in Japan. In a shared effort, ESA and NASA will fly, in the 2011 timeframe, LISA, a 5 million km Interferometer in space, which will detect gw in the mHz frequency range, as from supermassive galactic center black-holes.

Organiser(s): E. Cortina-Gil

Note: UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE Ecole de physique Département de physique nucléaire et corspusculaire 24, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 1211 GENEVE 4 TéL: (022) 702 62 73 Fax: (022) 781 21 92

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