Laser, Gravitational Waves and a Nobel Prize

Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2017

Kip S. Thorne Rainer Weiss Barry C. Barish

"for decisive contributions to the LIGO (Laser Interferometer

Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detector and the observation of
gravitational waves"
Credits: Photograph of Kip Thorne (By Keenan Pepper (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons), Photograph of Rainer Weiss (Dhs at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons), Photograph of Barry Barish (By R. Hahn [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
 Outline of the Talk
• Gravitational Waves
• Light interference and Laser Interferometer
• LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory)
• Future Gravitational Waves detector
• Concluding remarks
 Gravitational Waves (GW)
• In 1916, Albert Einstein predicted the Gravitational waves.
• Gravitational waves:
– Ripples in Spacetime created by acceleration of massive objects
– Travel at the speed of light

Credit: Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Project (http://www.black-holes.org)

• Interesting fact: in 1936, Einstein doubted the existence of GW.

 Effects of Gravitational Waves
• Passing GW expected to stretch and compress the space itself!

Credit: Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Project (http://www.black-holes.org)

𝒍
𝑳
By Sigmund via Wikimedia Commons

• Anticipated strain to space by GW: or smaller

 Interference of Light
• Light as wave:

By Kraaiennest [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons

• When 2 light waves interfere:

Adapted from www.explainthatstuff.com

 Laser as the Source of Light for Interference
• T. H. Maiman constructed the first working Laser in 1960.
“Solution Looking for a Problem”

• Why use Laser for interference?

Light source Wavelength (nm)

HeNe Laser 632.8
Typical Red LED 620 – 640
By G. Hüdepohl/ESO (http://www.eso.org/public/images/gerd_huedepohl_2/) [CC
BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
 Laser Interferometer
Arm 1
On the Screen:

Bright spot No light

Arm 2
• Arm length affects the
interference pattern on
screen
(Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO lab)
Effects of passing GW on laser interferometer

(Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO lab)

LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational- Wave Observatory)
• Consists of two identical facilities (3000 km apart)
• Impressive strain sensitivity: 10
• Light storage arm

• Damping
• Power recycling
• Ultrahigh Vacuum

(By Abbott, B. P. et al. [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab

 Detection of the First GW by LIGO
On 14 September 2015

(Credit: LIGO)
 What can we know from this discovery?

Credit: Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Project (http://www.black-holes.org)

B.P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and VIRGO Collaboration), Observation of gravitational waves
from a binary black hole merger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102 (2016)
 Future GW Detector: LISA (Laser
Interferometer Space Antenna)
• Consist of 3 spacecrafts in equilateral triangle formation
• To detect supermassive black hole mergers
• Avoids noise from earth
• Scheduled to launch in early 2030’s.

(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
 Concluding Remarks

For millennia, we ‘see’ astronomical phenomena via light. With

the discovery of gravitational wave, we can ‘hear’ visible and
invisible events in the universe.