Understanding Gravitational Waves and the Improved Lasers Paper Example

Introduction

Gravitational waves refer to ripples in the textile of space-time that are caused by most of the violent and energetic processes within the universe. The events that trigger the strongest gravitational waves include colliding black holes, possibly even the remnants of gravitational radiation created by the birth of the Universe and slightly wobbly rotation of neutron stars that are not perfect spheres. Over the recent past, a lot of discoveries have been made to help understand the gravitation waves. For instance, scientists have come up with devices that make the discovery of such waves more scientific and effective. In this paper, the research includes the discovery of the gravitational waves, the improvements in the gravitational waves detection and the gravitational wave dress.

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Discovery of Gravitational Waves

Albert Einstein foretold the existence of gravitational waves in the year 1916 when he was making his general theory of relativity. In his mathematics, Einstein explained that massive speeding up waves of objects such as black holes orbiting each other or neuron stars are capable of disrupting space-time in a way that a partial space would radiate from the source. Moreover, the ripples have the capability of traveling at high speed through the universe. The waves usually carry with them information of their cataclysmic origins together with the invaluable clues on the nature of the gravity itself (Mei et al., 1757). Although Einstein was the one who predicted the existence of gravitational waves in the year 1916, the actual proof of the existences of the gravitational waves occurred in the year 1974. This was twenty years after Albert Einstein death. Two Astronomers did the proof of the gravitational waves when they discovered a binary pulsar, which was two in number and was extremely dense and heavy stars in orbit around each other. The type of system that the two astronomers saw was exactly what was in the theory of the relativity, which was predicted by the Albert Einstein. According to the relativity, the type of the system was to radiate the gravitational waves. Since the Astronomers found that the theory was related to their findings, they started to measure how the period of the stars orbit changed with time. After observation for eight years, the astronomers observed that the stars were getting closer to each other at exactly as predicted in the general relativity if they were producing gravitational waves (Mei et al., 1752). The gravitational waves that are emitted would remove energy from the system and cause the stars to get closer to each other.

Improvements in Gravitational Waves Detection

In February of the year 2016, LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) made the announcement of the first gravitational force detection. The super-precise laser technology, which was an improvement of the one used before in their instruments discerned the gravitational waves. Every interferometric detector for gravitational waves, such as the one LIGO uses, makes the use of laser systems that operate by sowing little fluctuations in terms of short timescale power and keeping their high output power stable over the period of years. One of the shortcomings of the laser beams used currently is that all their beams have a high intensity at the center more than the intensity at the edges (Evans). This leads to an undesirable influence of the mirror surface fluctuations, which is strong, on the precision measurement of the detectors of the gravitational waves. However, this influence can be reduced by achieving a high power laser intensity distribution that is more homogenous. The discovery of gravitational waves is of importance in the field of astronomy, especially to the researchers. For instance, due to the increased interest in discovering more about the gravitational waves, researchers have now ventured in various discoveries including two new technologies that can further increase the efficiency of detectors for gravitational waves in the future. According to Benno Willke, who is the leader the Max Plank Gravitational Physics Institute laser development group, the discovery of the two new technologies should be regarded as important breakthroughs (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, pp. 2). Besides the use of a novel type of a laser beam profile in the detectors known as interferometric gravitational-wave devices, scientists have also revealed how to increase the stability of power in the high-power lasers, which are used in the detectors. Such discoveries are regarded as important milestones in the future of gravitational-wave astronomy.

Gravitational Waves Dress

The discovery of the novel type of laser beam can be credited to the fact that researchers and scientists have, over the recent past, developed a new device. The newly developed device is known as a pre-mode cleaner. The function of the new device is to optimize the beam profile. Another function is the reduction of beam jitter. The most important quality of the new device that needs to be known is that is compatible with the LIGO lasers (Barish, 1166). Another important breakthrough to note in this field is the increased stability, which is as a result of the fact that researchers have made the discovery of a further refined system used in the stabilization of power. In the system, the laser light is partly picked off and distributed on various detectors so that precise determination of total laser power can be achieved. In case it varies, appropriate correction of the main laser power is done. When the discoveries are used in collaboration, they have shown that there is a possibility of transfer of best stability level from the table-top experiment. Besides, is everything is done correctly according to the plan, the scientists can achieve high stability, even with the use of the LIGO technology (Evans). Such discoveries are considered important since in the world today, scientists have developed a lot of interest in the study of the space and other aspects of astronomy to help them understand the universe better. Such discoveries are not only important for the present, but also for the future of science as future scientists can use such discoveries as premises for their further discoveries (Mei et al., 1760). Such discoveries also help in redefining the study of astronomy that is based on more facts and technology-based discoveries.

Conclusion

LIGO is a large-scale physics experiment that detects cosmic gravitational waves and later develops the gravitational waves observations into an astronomical tool. 9n the 8nited stated, there were two large observations that were built with the aim of detecting gravitational waves with laser interferometry. The original LIGO observatories got the funds from the National Science Foundation was later operated by MIT and Caltech. The data that was collected by this institution from 2002 to 2010, gravitational waves have never been detected.

Works Cited

Barish, Barry C. "The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory LIGO." Advances in Space Research, vol 25, no. 6, 2000, pp. 1165-1169. Elsevier BV, doi: 10.1016/s0273-1177(99)00980-1.

Evans, Matthew. Gravitational Wave Detection with Advanced LIGO. 2017, https://youtu.be/MCkcxQFhkHA. Accessed 23 Nov 2018.

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. "What Are Gravitational Waves?" LIGO Lab | Caltech, 2017, https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-are-gw. Accessed 23 Nov 2018.

Mei, Xiaochun, et al. "LIGO Experiments Cannot Detect Gravitational Waves By Using Laser Michelson Interferometers Light's Wavelength And Speed Change Simultaneously When Gravitational Waves Exist Which Make The Detections Of Gravitational Waves Impossible For LIGO Experiments."

Journal of Modern Physics, vol 07, no. 13, 2016, pp. 1749-1761. Scientific Research Publishing, Inc., doi:10.4236/jmp.2016.713157.