Thursday, 20 August 2009

A team of physicists from The University of Western Australia is participating in one of the most challenging scientific endeavours ever undertaken: the attempt to directly detect vibrations of space called gravitational waves.

With more than 50 physicists from a consortium of Australian universities and a huge international team, the UWA scientists, under research team leader Winthrop Professor David Blair, are using huge detectors such as lasers, mirrors and multi-kilometre scale vacuum systems, based in the USA.

The team's first significant observations relating to the Big Bang were published today (August 20) in the prestigious journal Nature .  Although they did not detect any gravitational wave sounds, their results set new limits to the strength of these waves which will help to pin down the details of the Big Bang in which the universe was born.

More importantly the measurements pave the way for new measurements with improved detectors over the next few years.  The improved detectors are anticipated to be able to detect gravitational waves from colliding stars and black holes and, with the addition of a detector in Australia, to pin down their location in the universe.

The Big Bang is believed to have created a flood of gravitational waves - ripples in the fabric of time and space - that still fill the universe and carry information about the universe as it was immediately after the Big Bang.

To make the measurements, the international team of physicists had to keep three ultrasensitive detectors in continuous operation for a year.  Australian physicists were among the teams who worked the shifts monitoring and adjusting the supersensitive instruments.

The instruments are so sensitive that earthquakes at the other side of the world can put them out of action.  Other international team members are involved in developing and designing new technology to enable the future improvements.

"One of the goals of the research is the direct detection of black holes; to listen to their births and the ring-tones produced by their vibrations.  Another goal is to listen to the birth of the universe itself, which should sound a bit like wind in the treetops," Professor Blair said.

"The waves are a bit like sounds, but they travel at the speed of light through empty space and can carry vast amounts of energy."

The UWA research team includes senior scientists Professor David Coward, Dr Ju Li, Dr Chunnong Zhao, Dr Linqing Wen, Professor Jackie Davidson, Mr Pablo Barriga and Professor Alexey Veryaskin.

UWA students Lucienne Merrill and Jean-Charles Dumas have joined the research team for one of the detectors in Livingston, Louisiana, and are currently helping to maintain the operation of the interferometer.

Professor Blair said some team members were working on technology for the next upgrade of the US detectors while others are working on methods for analysing the vast amount of data that emerges from the detectors.

Others are working on the designs for the large scale Australian Gravitational Observatory which they hope to build in the Shire of Gingin in Western Australia.

The new Zadko telescope has been installed on the Gravitational Observatory site where it looks for flashes of light associated with likely gravitational wave sources.

On the Observatory site the team reflect powerful laser beams between mirrors at the ends of 80 meter long vacuum pipes where their experiments simulate the processes that will occur in the upgraded detectors.

Media references

Winthrop Professor David Blair (+61 8) 6488  2736 / (+61 8) 9575 7591 - Gingin
Director, Australian International Gravitational Research Centre
(WA Government Centre of Excellence)
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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