GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

Ofir Cohen
Chen Maoz

April 11, 2024

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Contents
1 Abstract 3

2 Introduction 3

3 What are gravitational waves? 3

3.1 Qualitative comparison of gravitational and electromagnetic waves . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

4 The mathematics of gravitational waves 5

4.1 Einstein’s general theory of relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.2 Liniarized Einstein’s field equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.3 Gauge Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.4 Plane waves in spacetime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.5 Polarization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.6 The quadrupole formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.7 Example - compact binary system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

5 The Detection of Gravitational Waves 11

5.1 The first detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.1.1 LIGO Interferometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.2 Pulsar timing arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.2.1 NANOGrav . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

6 Observatory status today 14

7 bibliography 16

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1 Abstract
2 Introduction
Gravitational waves are signals from distant objects in the universe that can travel vast distances.
Unlike light waves, gravitational waves are not blocked or altered by interactions with matter in the
universe. The past nine years have witnessed a revolution in astronomy. On September 14, 2015,
a direct signal of gravitational wave emitted from the binary black hole merger was detected by the
Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detector, for the first time.
These waves were emitted more than a billion years ago. this was a significant event, not only in
demonstrating that gravitational waves could be directly detected, but more fundamentally in revealing
new insights into astronomical objects and the Universe itself.
Together with black holes and the expansion of the Universe, the existence of gravitational radiation is
one of the key predictions of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Coming nearly 100 years after Albert
Einstein first predicted their existence, but doubted that they could ever be measured, the first direct
gravitational waves detection have undoubtedly opened a new window on the Universe. The scientific
insights emerging from these detections have already revolutionized multiple domains of physics and
astrophysics, yet, they are ‘the tip of the iceberg’, representing only a small fraction of the future
potential of gravitational wave astronomy. As is the case for the Universe seen through EM waves,
different classes of astrophysical sources emit gravitational waves across a broad spectrum ranging
over more than 20 orders of magnitude, and require different detectors for the range of frequencies of
interest .
The first hints of the existence of gravitational waves came in 1974 from observations of a binary pulsar
- two neutron stars spinning around each other, blasting out radiation.

3 What are gravitational waves?

Gravitational waves are ripples or vibrations in space-time caused by massive objects (things like
neutron stars or black holes orbiting each other) moving with extreme accelerations. Einstein’s math-
ematics has shown, that massive accelerating objects would disrupt space-time in such a way that
’waves’ of undulating space-time would propagate in all directions away from the source.

The existence of gravitational radiation is first shown to be a natural consequence of any relativistic
description of the gravitational interaction. The properties of gravitational waves, as predicted by the
general theory of relativity, are contrasted with those of electromagnetic waves. Gravitational waves
are invisible. However, they are incredibly fast. They travel at the speed of light and they squeeze
and stretch anything in their path as they pass by.

The strongest gravitational waves are produced by cataclysmic events such as colliding black holes,
supernovas and colliding neutron stars. Other gravitational waves are predicted to be caused by the
rotation of neutron stars that are not perfect spheres, and possibly even the remnants of gravitational
radiation created by the Big Bang.

3.1 Qualitative comparison of gravitational and electromagnetic waves

In order to understand gravitational waves better, we would like to compare them to waves we know
well - electromagnetic waves.

Both types of waves share some similarities: They both propagate at the speed of light, both are
transverse and they each have two orthogonal polarization. By that, for both types of waves the asso-
ciated fields lie in the plane perpendicular to the wave vector. They also differ strongly in their very
nature and main characteristics:

Propagation in spacetime- Electromagnetic waves are oscillations in magnetic field which prop-
agate in spacetime. Gravitational waves are tiny propagating ripples in the curvature of spacetime it
self.

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Radiation - Electromagnetic radiation is created by a large number of microscopic charges, that
cause non-coherent superposition of waves with a dipolar structure in the wave zone.
Gravitational radiation is created by bulk motion (a motion caused in fluids due to pressure difference)
of macroscopic masses, that cause coherent superposition of waves with a quadropolar structure in the
wave zone.

Wavelength - The wavelength of electromagnetic waves is much smaller than their sources. There-
fore, these waves can be used to produce images.
The wavelength of gravitational waves is usually bigger than their sources. Therefore, these waves can
not be used to produce images, rather their two polarization states are more similar to “stereo sound”
information.

Interaction with matter - Electromagnetic waves interact strongly with matter and they are scatted
many times when they propagate far from their sources.
Gravitational waves barely interact with matter and propagate freely in the universe, what makes their
detection quite challenging.

From those differences, we can see that electromagnetic waves and gravitational waves are comple-
mentary sources of information about their astrophysical sources.

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4 The mathematics of gravitational waves
Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation, first published in 1687, states that two point-like massive
→
− →
−
bodies attract each other through a force F whose norm || F || = Gmr12m2 is proportional to their masses
m1 and m2 , and inversely proportional to the square of their separation r, with G a universal constant.
Newton’s theory of gravity had always been characterized by describing the movement of particles
under Earth’s gravitational field and the motion of planets with great accuracy.
Recalling that this force derives from a local potential Φ, a common form of Newton’s law is Poisson’s
equation:
▽2 Φ = 4πGρ
Where ρ is the mass density of matter, acting as the source of the gravitational potential Φ. Hence,
in Newtonian gravity, the gravitational interaction acts instantaneously. This was already of some
concern to Newton himself, but it clearly became a significant problem with the advent of Einstein’s
theory of special relativity.

4.1 Einstein’s general theory of relativity

Einstein’s field equations, more commonly known as Einstein’s equations, are a set of 10 equations
that explain how the curvature of spacetime (due to mass and energy) causes gravitational interaction.
They were derived by Albert Einstein in 1915. The fact that Einstein’s equations must reduce to
Poisson’s equation in the Newtonian limit, led Einstein to summarize his set of equations into an
elegant one:
8πG
Gµν = − 4 T µν (1)
c
T µν is the tensor which describes the density and flux of momentum and energy. It is called the energy-
momentum stress tensor, and it is given for a perfect fluid. This tensor contains the information on
the content of matter of spacetime, and its derivative equals zero.
G is the universal gravitational constant.
c is the speed of light
Gµν is Einstein’s tensor.

4.2 Liniarized Einstein’s field equations

For weak gravity, when the distance between masses in binary system is far enough, we can approximate
Einstein’s equations to be linear, and hence ignore all nonlinear contributions. By the liniarization, we
refer to the space-time matric gµν as the flat mincovski matric ηµν with a “small” metric perturbation.
This leads to what is known as linear gravity.Therefore, in most astrophysical situations, the physical
metric gµν is “close” to the Minkowski metric gµν of special relativity, in the sense that

gµν = ηµν + hµν (2)

ds2 = gµν dxµ dxν

Where ηµν is the flat metric (+1, -1, -1, -1) and the coefficients |hµν | << 1 are small compared to 1.
There is another important condition follows from the first condition of hµν we must notice in this
linearization - |∂σ hµν | << 1. From that, in our calculation of the Einstein tensor in linearized general
relativity, some terms in the equation will be cancelled.
gµν is metric tensor, a symmetric tensor, and it is usually taken to be nondegenerate (i.e. its determi-
nant does not vanish).

So we express g µν to first order as

g µν = η µν − hµν (3)
In order to calculate our new equation of Einstein’s tensor expressed by hµν and η µν , we need to
calulate Christoffel symbols, Rimman tensor, Ricci tensor and the curvature scalar. In this paper we

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will not calculate them. In those calculation, some of the terms are canceled. After the linearization
process, we can obtain that the Einstein tensor in linearized general relativity is:
1 αβ

Gµν = h,µν − hα α α α
ν,µα − hµ,να + hµν,α − ηµν (h,α − h,αβ ) (4)
2
While This is what the fully expanded Einstein field equations look like when written out in terms of
the metric:

This allows us to express equation 1 as

αβ 16πG
h̄α α α
µν,α + (ηµν h̄,αβ − h̄ν,µα − h̄µνα ) = −
Tµν, (5)
c4
where we used what is known as the trace-reserved perturbation variable, defined by:
1
h̄µν ≡ hµν − hηµν (6)
2

4.3 Gauge Transformations

We can do change of coordinates that sets all the terms of Einstein tensor to zero except one term.
This basically shows that the metric obeys a wave equation in the vacuum where Tµν = 0.
This coordinate system is called "Lorenz gauge", and it helps simplify the linear Einstein field equa-
tions.
Now we will uniquely specify the perturbation hµν . The freedom to perform “infinitesimal” coordinate
′
transformations xµ ≡ xµ + ξ µ (x) that preserve the form (eq 3).
From the metric rule, we get that a very small change of coordinates due to ξ changes the metric like
this:
α
△h̄µν = −ξν,µ − ξµ,ν + ξ,α ηµν (7)
Now, we use one of the most appropriate gauge conditions in general relativity - Lorentz gauge(orthogonality
condition ):
h̄µα
,α = 0 (8)
The d’Alembertian operator □2 :
□2 = −η αβ δα δβ (9)
We can apply the Lorentz gauge to equation 5 and obtain the linearized Einstein equation in the
Lorentz gauge:
16πG
□2 h̄µν = − 4 Tµν (10)
c

4.4 Plane waves in spacetime

In vaccum, equation 10 is equel to zero:
□2 h̄µν = 0 (11)
Which is set of 10 equations, so we can look for solution of the form:
h̄µν = Re[Aµν exp(ikα xα )] (12)
Where Aµν is the amplitude matrix and k µ = η µα kα is the wave vector.
The d’Alembertian operator acting on the exponential brings down a −kα k α , so equation 11 will be
satisfied only if the wave vector will be a null vector:
kµ k µ = 0 (13)

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4.5 Polarization
If we have a set of 10 wave equations, how many polarizations are there? Let us remember the Lorentz
gauge condition (equation 8), which implies a restriction on the amplitude components:

Aµν kν = 0 (14)

This generates four conditions that cut down the 10 equations down to six. However, we can still
reduce the number of equations all the way to only two. In order to do this, let us start by introducing
the following gauge transformation:

ξ µ = Re[iB µ exp(ikα xα )] (15)

From equation 7 we can see that the gravitational wave amplitude changes from Aµν to Aµν + k µ B ν +
k ν B µ − kα B α ηµν . The following expression allows us to see how the quantities change: We can choose

a coordinate system in which Aα α and one of the A coefficients are zero because the 4x4 matrix is
0

invertible. This is called the transverse traceless gauge and it gives us four more conditions on the
amplitude matrix Aµν , which leaves with only two possible polarizations. Hence, Aµν can be expressed
as a linear combination of two linear polarization matrices:

Aµν = C+ eµν µν
+ + C × e× and h̄µν = hµν (16)

Where C+ and C× are complex constants and they represent two modes of polarization, and:
   
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
µν
0 1 0 0 µν
0 0 1 0
[e+ ] = 
0 0 −1
 [e× ] =   (17)
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

We will now focus on what happens when gravitational waves strike matter. For this, we consider
a wave propagating in the z direction, hence:

ikα xα = i(k0 ct − k0 z) = ik0 (ct − z) (18)

With kα = (k0 , 0, −k0 ) where k0 = w/c

   
0 0 0 0 0 0 00
0 Re[C + exp(iω(t − z/c))] Re[C × exp(iω(t − z/c))] 0  0 h+ h×
0
hµν = 
  
0 Re[C× exp(iω(t − z/c))] −Re[C+ exp(iω(t − z/c))] 0 = 0
 cos[ω(t−z/c)]
h× −h+
0
0 0 0 0 0 0 00
(19)
The gravitational waves described in this gauge are Transverse and Traceless, and we will use the
notation hTµνT .
The line element will be written as: (where ϕ = ω(t − z/c) )

ds2 = −c2 dt2 + (1 + Re[C+ exp(iϕ)])dx2 + (1 − Re[C+ exp(iϕ)])dy 2 + 2Re[C× exp(iϕ)]dxdy (20)

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 What does this mean? Let us place a bunch of test particles at different coordinates, (x, y,
z), and imagine a wave striking on them that is linearly polarized type “+” (which means C× = 0).
Particles along the direction of propagation z will not feel anything. However, different particles with
the same x coordinate will drift apart, whereas particles with same y will get closer. After a short
period of time, the opposite will happen: particles with different x coordinate will come closer, whereas
those with the same y will move farther from each other. If we imagine a circle in the x-y plane, we
will see how, first, it becomes squashed in the x direction and elongated in the y direction, and later
it will do the opposite. This is why we define this polarization as +. If, instead of a type + linearly
polarized wave we have a type × linearly polarized wave, the same thing will happen. However, the
only difference is that, this time, the axes along which elongation/compression happens will be rotated
45o with respect to the previous ones, and hence the reason why the symbol x is used for this case.
We can see that in both cases, we are dealing with transverse waves.

4.6 The quadrupole formula

Generically, there is a solution to the wave-equation that can be found by integrating over the source,
just as there is in electromagnetism. In EM, the vector potential Aµ can be expressed as an integral
over the source, the current J µ . Similarly, the wave tensor h̄µν may be expressed as an integral over
the stress-energy tensor T µν :

T (x − |x − x′ |, x′ ) 3 ′
Z µν 0
−4G
µν 0
h̄ (x , x) = 4 d x (21)
c |x − x′ |

which is a retarded integral in which x represents the field point and x’ the source. From equations 8
and 10 we can see that
T,νµν = 0 (22)

We will skip some mathematics and in the end we obtain

−2G d2
Z 
h̄ij (ct, x) = 4 ρx i j 3
x d x (23)
c r dt2
Or more correctly
2G T T
hTijT (ct, x) = Q̈ (24)
c4 r ij

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Where the integral is taken at t − r/c, which is the retarded time. This equation tells us at which
rate and amplitude gravitational waves are generated from a system of masses. We can see that the
amplitude of the gravitational waves is depend on the distance from the source and Q is the mass
quadrupole moment.
*We used an approximation T 00 ≈ ρc2 for slow source particles (ρ representing the density).

We can integrate over all angles to obtain the quadrupole formula:

!2
G d3 QTij dE
LGW = 5 3
= (25)
5c dt dt

Where QTij is the traceless part (δij Qij = 0) of the mass quadrupole moment:
Z  
1 ij 2
T 3 i j
Qij (t) = d x ρ x x − δ x (26)
3

Equation 25 gives us The total energy (luminosity) carried away by gravitational waves.

The quadrupole formula is a way to understand how gravitational waves are produced. However,
just by looking at it it is hard to have an idea of what type of events have the power to generate
gravitational waves. Lets try to understand what we got. First, we can say that
!
d3 QTij
∼ ω 3 M R2 (27)
dt3

ω - some typical eigenfrequency, can be determined from the equations of motion. M - masses of the
source.
Second, let’s show an example.

4.7 Example - compact binary system

In principle the quadrupole formula can be used for any system so long as you can compute the
components of Qij .
Consider a circular binary. This is the classic source for gravitational wave astronomy. Treating the
stars as point masses m1 and m2 , and confining the orbit to the x-y plane, we may write:
µ µ
xi1 = r(θ) · {cosθ, sinθ, 0} xi2 = r(θ) · {−cosθ, −sinθ, 0} (28)
m1 m2
where θ is called the anomaly (angular position of the star in its orbit, which changes with time), µ is
the reduced mass, defined by µ = mm11+m
m2
2
r(θ) is the radius of the orbit as a function of position. Generically, it is defined in terms of the
semi-major axis - a and the eccentricity - e by the shape equation:

a(1 − e2 )
r(θ) = (29)
1 + ecosθ

For circular orbits, the stars are in constant circular motion. In this case the angle θ can be expressed
in terms of the angular orbital frequency:
t
θ = ωt = 2πforb t = 2π (30)
Porb

We can extract ω from Kepler’s thirs law:

r
GM
GM = ω a 2 3
−→ ω= (31)
a3

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In the case of circular orbits, e = 0 and so r(θ) = a = const.
Since we are treating the masses as point masses, it is easy to write the mass density - ρ in terms of
delta functions:
ρ = δ(z)[m1 δ(x − x1 )δ(y − y1 ) + m2 δ(x − x2 )δ(y − y2 )] (32)
Now we can evaluate the components of the quadrupole tensor:
Z
1
Qxx = d3 x (ρx2 ) = µa2 (1 + cos(2ωt)) (33)
2
Z
1
Qyy = d3 y (ρy 2 ) = µa2 (1 − cos(2ωt))
2
1 2
Qxy = Qyx = µa sin(2ωt)
2

The trace subtraction is:

 
1 ij 1 1 1 1
δ δlm Qlm = δ ij µa2 (1 + cos(2ωt)) + (1 − cos(2ωt)) = δ ij µa2 (34)
3 3 2 2 3

Now we can write down QTij (t)

1
 
cos(2ωt) + sin(2ωt) 0
1 3
QTij (t) = µa2  sin(2ωt) −cos(2ωt) + 1
3 0  (35)
2
0 0 − 23

Taking two time derivatives yields:

 
−cos(2ωt) −sin(2ωt) 0
Q̈Tij (t) = 2µa2 ω 2 −sin(2ωt) cos(2ωt) 0 (36)
0 0 0

Taking a third time derivative yields:

 
...T sin(2ωt) −cos(2ωt) 0
Q ij (t) = 4µa2 ω 3 −cos(2ωt) −sin(2ωt) 0 (37)
0 0 0

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5 The Detection of Gravitational Waves
Einstein’s prediction of gravitational waves was at 1915, but until 1974 there was no evidence of their
existence. In that year, two astronomers, Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor, using the Arecibo Radio
Observatory in Puerto Rico discovered a "binary pulsar" 21,000 light years from Earth. That kind of
system was exactly the type of system that general relativity predicted should radiate gravitational
waves. Therefore, they began tracking the radio emissions from the stars to measure how their orbital
period changed over time.
They discovered that the stars were getting closer to each other over time, at the same way that
predicted by general relativity if they were radiating gravitational waves (the rate predicted by GR
agreed with the observed rate to within one half of one percent). This detection earned the researchers
the Nobel Prize in physics in 1993 "for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has
opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation".

5.1 The first detection

On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-
Wave Observatory of LIGO , one in Washington (LIGO Hanford) and one in Louisiana (LIGO Liv-
ingston), separated by 3,002 km , simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The
signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of 1·10−21 .
It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black
holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was called GW150914.
The data the detectors received:

Figure 1: The gravitational-wave event GW150914 observed by the LIGO Hanford (H1, left column
panels) and Livingston (L1, right column panels) detectors.

For visualization, all time series are filtered with a 35–350 Hz band pass filter to suppress large fluc-
tuations out side the detectors’ most sensitive frequency band.
Solid lines show a numerical relativity wave form for a system with parameters consistent with those
recovered from GW150914 confirmed to 99.9% of an independent calculation based on the theory.
Shaded areas show 90% credible regions for two independent wave form reconstructions.
In the second row of the figure, the dark gray model represent the signal using binary black hole
template wave forms based on the theory. The light gray model does not use an astrophysical model,
but instead calculates the strain signal as a linear combination of sine-Gaussian wavelets. These re-
construction shave a 94% overlap. The third row of the figure represent the residuals after subtracting
the filtered numerical relativity wave form from the filtered detector time series. The bottom row
represent the time-frequency of the strain data, showing the signal frequency increasing over time.

11
The signal was observed with a matched-filter single to noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate esti-
mated to be less then 1 event per 203000 years. The source lies at a luminosity distance of 410+160
−180 M pc
corresponding to a redshift z = 0.09−0.04
+0.03
. In the source frame, the initial masses of the black holes are
m1 = 36+5−4 M⊙ and m2 = 29−4 M⊙ , and the final black hole mass is M = 62−4 M⊙ , with 3−0.5 M⊙ c
+4 +4 +0.5 2

radiated in gravitational waves. These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass
black hole systems. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals. This is the first direct detection of
gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.

5.1.1 LIGO Interferometer

At their cores, LIGO’s interferometers are Michelson interferometers, the same sort of device that was
invented in the 1880’s:
• They are L-shaped
• Mirrors at the ends of the arms reflect light in order to create an interference pattern called
’fringes’
• A device called a photodetector senses the interference pattern, converting the light into an
electrical signal which can then be analyzed.
But LIGO’s interferometers are far larger and more complex than Michelson interferometer.
The first obvious difference between the original Michelson interferometer and LIGO is that LIGO uses
a laser beam as its light source, whereas the first Michelson interferometer used a plain white light.

Another obvious difference between the original Michelson interferometer and LIGO’s is sheer scale.
With arms 4km (2.5 mi.) long (By contrast, the interferometer Michelson and Morley used in their
famous experiment to study the "aether" had arms about 1.3 m long).
The scale of LIGO’s instruments is crucial to the search for gravitational waves. The longer the arms
of an interferometer, the smaller the meaurements they can make. And having to measure a change
in distance 1,000 times smaller than a proton means that LIGO has to be larger and more sensitive
than any interferometer ever before constructed.

Figure 2: LIGO interferometer scheme

Designing instruments like LIGO’s interferometers, which are capable of measuring a change in distance
of 10-19 meters, required inventing and refining innovative technology.
Most of LIGO’s impressive technology resides in:
• seismic isolation systems (which remove unwanted, non-gravitational-wave vibrations).

12
 • vacuum systems (to keep dust out of components and make sure the laser light travels freely).
• optics components (to preserve and boost laser light and laser power).
• and computing infrastructure (to handle the scientific data that LIGO collects).
These systems are like LIGO’s internal organs. If any one fails, the whole instrument suffers.
LIGO is not the only gravitational wave observatory in the world. While LIGO’s two detectors con-
stitute a mini internal collaboration between LHO and LLO, an even larger gravitational wave ob-
servatory collaboration exists between LIGO and other detectors and researchers around the world,
including Virgo in Italy and KAGRA in Japan. Data from LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA are combined
and analyzed jointly. This collaboration significantly enhances the search for gravitational waves.

5.2 Pulsar timing arrays

A different approach to detecting gravitational waves is used by pulsar timing arrays.
Pulsars, and especially millisecond pulsars, can be used as precision clocks to explore a wide range
of phenomena. An array of millisecond pulsars distributed across the sky can be used to detect low-
frequency gravitational waves by searching for a correlated signature between pulsars, arising from the
influence of gravitational waves at the Earth. These pulsar timing arrays complement other methods
of gravitational wave detection in their frequency coverage and the physics they probe.
A pulsar is a highly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron star that emits beamed radio and high energy
(X-ray and/or gamma-ray) radiation. A pulse of radiation is seen each time the beam crosses the line
of sight of an observer, giving rise to a pulse profile that encodes information about the structure of
the magnetosphere and the emission process.
As gravitational waves ripple through the space between us and the pulsars in our galaxy, they distort
the distance that those pulses have to travel to reach us. This results in a pulsar’s pulses arriving
at Earth slightly early or slightly late, with the variations in the timing of the pulses amounting to
billionths of a second, corresponding to gravitational waves with frequencies in the nanohertz regime
This is a far lower frequency than the gravitational-wave events detected by LIGO and Virgo, which
ranges from 5 to 20,000 Hz.

Figure 3: Pulsar timing arrays

5.2.1 NANOGrav
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) is a pulsar tim-
ing array experiment that monitors a growing array of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) with some of the
largest radio telescopes in the world. These observations enable high-precision timing over decadeslong

13
timescales with the aim of directly detecting gravitational waves from merging supermassive black hole
binary systems. This is a multifaceted project that requires expertise in many areas, each of which is
covered in five companion papers detailing findings in NANOGrav’s latest “15-year” data set.

NANOGrav got a lot of nice data sets of evidences of gravitational waves in the past few years. For ex-
ample, in July 2023, the NANOGrav 15 yr data set showed evidence for the presence of a low-frequency
gravitational-wave background (GWB). While many physical processes can source such low-frequency
gravitational waves, they analyzed the signal as coming from a population of supermassive black hole
(SMBH) binaries distributed throughout the universe. They showed that astrophysically motivated
models of SMBH binary populations are able to reproduce both the amplitude and shape of the ob-
served low-frequency gravitational-wave spectrum.

6 Observatory status today

Since the first detection of gravitational waves by LIGO interferometers, there were more attempts
and successes to detect them. The main dedectors today are GEO600 (Germany), LIGO hanford,
LIGO livingstone, VIRGO (Italy), KAGRA (Japan). The only detectors that are activated as long
as we writing this paper are LIGO Hanford and LIGO Livingstone. Those are 2nd generation GWs
detectors.
GEO600 is a ground-based interferometric gravitational wave detector located near Hannover, Ger-
many. It is designed and operated by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics,
along with partners in the United Kingdom. This one was not very successful and it is now inactivated.

Virgo is a gravitational wave interferometer with arms 3 km long (LIGO’s are 4 km long). Virgo
is hosted by the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), a collaboration of the Italian and French
governments. In 2017, after completing a significant upgrade to improve its sensitivity, Virgo joined
LIGO near the tail end of LIGO’s second observing run, marking the first time that three comparable
gravitational wave detectors were operating in unison. Within three weeks of Virgo joining the search,
not only did they make their own first detection, but they were instrumental in helping to localize the
source of the first gravitational waves detected from merging neutron stars, an event that also emitted
electromagnetic radiation, i.e., light. That historic first "multimessenger" detection was subsequently
observed by at least one-third of the world’s professional astronomers. Virgo continues to observe
alongside LIGO in current observing runs.

KAGRA is a 3-km interferometer located inside the Kamioka mine (also home to the Super Kamiokande
neutrino detector). Despite the fact that Japan is an earthquake-prone country, being underground,
KAGRA is exposed to much less seismic vibration than surface instruments like LIGO, Virgo, and
GEO600. KAGRA’s technology is also quite different than that of LIGO, Virgo, and GEO. For one, it
employs a cryogenic system to cool their test masses (mirrors) to such a degree that molecular vibra-
tions within the material itself will be brought almost to a stop. This means that ’thermal noise’ will
be significantly reduced in KAGRA’s system, compared to LIGO, Virgo, and GEO. A key to detecting
gravitational waves is to isolate the detector from any and all Earthly vibrations that might mimic
or mask a gravitational wave vibration. Such local vibrations include those of the actual molecules in
mirrors and their coatings.

The nature of gravitational-wave astronomy makes cooperation and collaboration between the de-
tectors essential. Combining the data from multiple gravitational-wave detectors yields increased
confidence in the signals we detect, increased sensitivity to weaker or more distant sources, and more
precise measurement of the source parameters, in particular, the sky position. Since 2020, the LIGO-
Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration begins a new observing run with upgraded instruments, new and even
more accurate signal models, and more advanced data analysis methods. Together they detect, local-
ize, and characterize the coalescence of compact binary mergers, continuous gravitational waves, and
burst gravitational waves.

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Figure 4: Noise curves - This plot represents the median noise of each interferometer measured over
the course of the day. The measured output of each interferometer, calibrated to units of gravitational
wave strain, is shown as a function of frequency. Since the amplitude of a gravitational wave signal
changes with frequency, the shape of this curve determines each detector’s sensitivity to incoming
gravitational waves.

Figure 5: Current (as of March 2024) projected timeline of observing runs 4 (O4) and 5 (O5), and
expected binary neutron star (BNS) detection range for LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA detectors.

As we mentioned before, scientists are looking for different approaches to detect gravitational waves,
which can be achieved by pulsar timing arrays, detection in the cosmic microwave background or 3rd
generation gravitational waves detectors. For some time now, scientists have been preparing the next
generation of gravitational wave detectors - even larger and many times more sensitive observatories
that will investigate the cosmos from the 2030s onwards:

space-based gravitational wave detector LISA - is designed to pick up low-frequency space-time ripples
that cannot be detected at the Earth’s surface.
the 3rd generation ground-based detectors, will cover a frequency range similar to that of current in-
struments – with a sensitivity that is up to 10 times higher than Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
in their final stage of development. Two international projects are currently in preparation: in Europe
under the name “Einstein Telescope” and in the U.S. as “Cosmic Explorer”. Both instruments will be
much larger than the current facilities. However, their design differs significantly in some respects.

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research gate https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343700479G ravitationalW avesT heP hysicso fS pacea ndT ime
??? https://www.ams.org/publications/journals/notices/201707/rnoti-p684.pdf
??? https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1614681113
??? https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1113284/FULLTEXT01.pdf
??? https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-021-00303-8
??? https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/97898131417660 001
??? https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102
??? https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-are-gw
??? https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/16/2/023027/pdf
??? Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration)

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