A New Look at Our Universe with Gravitational Wave Astronomy

2021-10-26

JPS Hot Topics 1, 060

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSHT.1.060

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Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy in the nascent era

(PTEP Editors' Choice)

Makoto Arimoto, Hideki Asada, Mike Cherry, Michiko S. Fujii, Yasush Fukazawa, Akira Harada, Kazuhiro Hayama, Takashi Hosokawa, Kunihito Ioka, Yoichi Itoh, Nobuyuki Kanda, Koji S. Kawabata, Kyohei Kawaguchi, Nobuyuki Kawai, Tsutomu Kobayashi, Kazunori Kohri, Yusuke Koshio, Kei Kotake, Jun Kumamoto, Masahiro N. Machida, Hideo Matsufuru, Tatehiro Mihara, Masaki Mori, Tomoki Morokuma, Shinji Mukohyama, Hiroyuki Nakano, Tatsuya Narikawa, Hitoshi Negoro, Atsushi Nishizawa, Takayuki Ohgami, Kazuyuki Omukai, Takanori Sakamoto, Shigeyuki Sako, Mahito Sasada, Yuichiro Sekiguchi, Motoko Serino, Jiro Soda, Satoshi Sugita, Kohsuke Sumiyoshi, Hajime Susa, Teruaki Suyama, Hirotaka Takahashi, Kazuya Takahashi, Tomoya Takiwaki, Takahiro Tanaka, Masaomi Tanaka, Ataru Tanikawa, Nozomu Tominaga, Nami Uchikata, Yousuke Utsumi, Mark R. Vagins, Kei Yamada, and Michitoshi Yoshida
Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1093/ptep/ptab042, .

A new interdisciplinary collaborative project underscores the importance of combining theory with advanced observation techniques to understand gravitational waves and their sources, opening doors to new discoveries about the universe.

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fields:movie:https://youtu.be/3R8nLpj_cMs

The first-ever gravitational waves were directly observed when two massive black holes in close orbit around each other collided to create a ripple in the fabric of space-time. The detection of these waves at LIGO/Virgo facilities marked a new dawn in gravitational wave physics and astronomy where theoretical predictions met actual observational data. This event also opened up new opportunities to test the theory of gravity beyond general relativity and gain a deeper understanding of the evolution of stars, short gamma-ray bursts, and the formation of heavy elements.

Two years after this event, on August 17, 2017, another event occurred: the merging of two binary neutron stars. The observation of this new event led to a paradigm shift in gravitational wave astronomy. It sparked a collaborative project called “Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy: Genesis,” where scientists from various fields of physics, working on various instruments, came together to conduct follow-up observations, and shared their insights into what happened during and after the event. This quest into the unknown received a huge boost from the expanding international network of highly sensitive ground-based gravitational interferometers and will receive a further boost from gravitational wave antennas in space.

Over the years, by combining advanced observation techniques with theoretical predictions, new sources of gravitational waves, such as binary neutron stars and massive black holes, have been discovered. Exploration of such gravitational wave events and their sources could be used to probe strong gravity, the physical properties of nuclear matter, the origin of heavy elements, and even potentially rewrite our perception of the universe.

Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy in the nascent era

(PTEP Editors' Choice)