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First detection of gravitational waves: GW150914 from a binary black hole merger

Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2016

Abstract

Exactly one hundred years ago in June 1916, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves as another consequence of general relativity, his dynamic theory of the gravitational field. Many scientists and engineers attempted their direct detection for several decades.

In February 2016, the teams of LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration announced that they managed on September 14. 2015 for the first time in history to record a gravitational wave marked GW150914. Signal analysis revealed that the source of this wave was a binary merger of two large black holes, which occurred far across the universe a billion years ago.

The article summarizes the historical background of this important discovery, technical parameters of highly sensitive interferometers Advanced LIGO and details of the discovery.