Date: Thursday, 11 February 2016
Place: Aula Enric Casassas.Physics Faculty, Universitat de Barcelona
- 16:00 h, Presentation by R. Emparan (ICREA-ICCUB) Gravitational Waves: What they are, and what LIGO’s detection represents
- 16:30h Live online broadcast by streaming of the press release (if available *)
- 15:00 (estimated) Round table with ICCUB researchers. Roberto Emparan Miguel Zilhao, Domènec Espriu, Jordi Miralda i Josep Maria Paredes
* The broadcast link has not been provided by LIGO yet. The availability of the broadcast will depend on LIGO.
Scientists to provide update on the search for gravitational waves
100 years after Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, the National Science Foundation gathers scientists from Caltech, MIT and the LIGO Scientic Collaboration to update the scientic community on efforts to detect them.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first publication of Albert Einstein's prediction of the existence of gravitational waves. With interest in this topic piqued by the centennial, the group will discuss their ongoing efforts to observe gravitational waves.
LIGO, a system of two identical detectors carefully constructed to detect incredibly tiny vibrations from passing gravitational waves, was conceived and built by MIT and Caltech researchers ,funded by the National Science Foundation, with signicant contributions from other U.S. and international partners. The twin detectors are located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington. Research and analysis of data from the detectors is carried out by a global group of scientists, including the LSC, which includes the GEO600 Collaboration, and the VIRGO Collaboration.