Listening to the universe with gravitational-wave astronomy

The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detectors have just completed their first science run, following many years of planning, research, and development. LIGO is a member of what will be a worldwide network of gravitational-wave observatories, with other members in Europe, J...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hughes, Scott A. (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier, 2016-02-16T15:03:27Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Hughes, Scott A.  |e author 
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100 1 0 |a Hughes, Scott A.  |e contributor 
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520 |a The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detectors have just completed their first science run, following many years of planning, research, and development. LIGO is a member of what will be a worldwide network of gravitational-wave observatories, with other members in Europe, Japan, and-hopefully-Australia. Plans are rapidly maturing for a low frequency, space-based gravitational-wave observatory: LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, to be launched around 2011. The goal of these instruments is to inaugurate the field of gravitational-wave astronomy: using gravitational waves as a means of listening to highly relativistic dynamical processes in astrophysics. This review discusses the promise of this field, outlining why gravitational waves are worth pursuing, and what they are uniquely suited to teach us about astrophysical phenomena. We review the current state of the field, both theoretical and experimental, and then highlight some aspects of gravitational-wave science that are particularly exciting (at least to this author). 
520 |a National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-9907949) 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Annals of Physics