Related papers: A Brief History of Gravitational Waves
The first direct observation of gravitational waves' action upon matter has recently been reported by the BICEP2 experiment. Advanced ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are being installed. They will soon be commissioned, and then…
Even if Einstein's General Relativity achieved a great success and overcame lots of experimental tests, it also showed some shortcomings and flaws which today advise theorists to ask if it is the definitive theory of gravity. In this…
It is presented a brief review on gravitational waves (GWs). It is shown how the wave equation is obtained from Einstein's equations and how many and how are the polarization modes of these waves. It is discussed the reasons why GWs sources…
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary since the beginning of the search for gravitational waves at the Max Planck Society, and in coincidence with the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Albert Einstein Institute, we explore the…
This is an overview article of the mathematics of gravitational waves. We explain the mathematics and physics of these waves in general relativity theory, discuss the gravitational wave experiment aLIGO and their detection of gravitational…
After giving a brief introduction and presenting a complete classification of gravitational waves (GWs) according to their frequencies, we review and summarize the detection methods, the sensitivities, and the sources. We notice that…
This article deals with the first detection of gravitational waves by the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors on 14 September 2015, where the signal was generated by two stellar mass black holes…
Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime generated by the acceleration of astrophysical objects. A direct consequence of general relativity, they were first directly observed in 2015 by the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave…
With the advanced gravitational wave detectors coming on line in the next 5 years, we expect to make the first detections of gravitational waves from astrophysical sources, and study the properties of the waves themselves as tests of…
Realizing a gravitational wave (GW) astronomy in next years is a great challenge for the scientific community. By giving a significant amount of new information, GWs will be a cornerstone for a better understanding of gravitational physics.…
It is well known that Einstein's General Relativity (GR) achieved a great success and overcame lots of experimental tests. On the other hand, GR also showed some shortcomings and flaws which today advise theorists to ask if it is the…
We summarise the physics of first-order phase transitions in the early universe, and the possible ways in which they might come about. We then focus on gravitational waves, emphasising general qualitative features of stochastic backgrounds…
Gravitational waves are a unique probe of the early Universe, as the Universe is transparent to gravitational radiation right back to the end of inflation. In this article, we summarise detection prospects and the wide scope of primordial…
Gravitational wave detectors are already operating at interesting sensitivity levels, and they have an upgrade path that should result in secure detections by 2014. We review the physics of gravitational waves, how they interact with…
The Advanced LIGO observatory recently reported (Abbott et al., 2016a) the first direct detection of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein (1916). The detection of this event was predicted in 1997 on the basis of the Scenario Machine…
Solving Einstein's equations precisely for strong-field gravitational systems is essential to determining the full physics content of gravitational wave detections. Without these solutions it is not possible to infer precise values for…
The physics of gravitational wave and its detection in the recent experiment by the LIGO collaboration is discussed in simple terms for a general audience. The main article is devoid of any mathematics, but an appendix is included for…
For millennia, humanity has relied exclusively on light$\unicode{x2014}$initially visible light and, later, broader and broader portions of the electromagnetic spectrum$\unicode{x2014}$to observe the universe. In the past decade, a…
"If one could ever prove the existence of gravitational waves, the processes responsible for their generation would probably be much more curious and interesting than even the waves themselves." (Gustav Mie, 1868 - 1957) The discovery of…
The nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy offers many opportunities for effective and inspirational astronomy outreach. Gravitational waves, the "ripples in space-time" predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity, are…