Observation of Gravitational Waves

Titolo: Observation of Gravitational Waves

Relatore: E. Majorana (INFN - Sez. di Roma)

Coordinate: lunedì 13 giugno, ore 12:00, aula magna DFA

Abstract: The detection of gravitational waves was one of the most expected milestones of the last decades. Predicted by Einstein in 1916 in the context of General Relativity as fluctuations on a Lorentz background, the effect of gravitational waves on space-time is weak and the detection required sophisticated detectors and decades of investments. The efforts done by the community were motivated by the great and unique target of directly observing space-time fluctuations, generated deeply far in the universe.
Hence, the collaborations as LIGO (US) and  Virgo (EU) established a single machine use of  their detectors producing common targeting and analysis since 2007. In September 2015 LIGO detectors were set up again in operation with higher sensitivity after a break and Nature offered the chance of detecting gravitational waves generated by an exotic source, the coalescence of two black holes, unobservable in other ways.
An introductory view and the perspective around this important discovery, with specific attention on the physics of the detectors, will be discussed. (Il seminario sarà tenuto in italiano.)