Gravitational Wave Detectors: observing tiny jitters in space-time
Harald Lück, Leibniz Universität Hannover and MPI für Gravitationsphysik
Abstract:
Gravitational waves have been predicted by Einstein almost a century ago, yet so far persistently escaped all efforts of direct experimental detection. The tiny changes in lengths resulting from massive astrophysical events are expected to occur at a level of 1E-22 for strong events, which requires technologies touching the limits of current technology and physics to detect them. This lecture will introduce sources of gravitational waves and their effect, methods of detection, a brief excursion into the history of gravitational wave detectors, current technologies that are used in existing gravitational wave detectors, and plans to routinely listen to the sound of the universe with the next generations of gravitational-wave observatories.
