Lab Tuned to Gravity's 'Ripples'

Krishna Dagli writes "One of the great scientific experiments of our age is now fully underway. Success would confirm fundamental physical theories and open a new window on the Universe, enabling scientists to probe the moment of creation itself. The experiment is trying to detect ripples created in the fabric of space-time that sweep out from merging black holes or exploding stars and detection would be a final test of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. "

Comments

negative outcomes?

[m874t232]

What are the alternative models if gravity waves simply don't exist?

It's important to have alternative hypotheses, among other reasons, in order to be able to determine when you got a null result. Until the theoreticians have done their homework and provided a reasonable and plausible alternative hypothesis, perhaps we shouldn't be investing millions of dollars (euros) in these kinds of experiments.

Re:negative outcomes?

[Tim C]

It's important to have alternative hypotheses, among other reasons, in order to be able to determine when you got a null result. Until the theoreticians have done their homework and provided a reasonable and plausible alternative hypothesis, perhaps we shouldn't be investing millions of dollars (euros) in these kinds of experiments.

That's simply not true. Right now, all our understanding of how the universe works points towards the existence of gravity waves. If we fail to detect them, then one of two things is true:

1) The equipment was wrong
2) The theory was wrong

Until such time as it looks like 2) is the case, there's no basis for exploring alternative hypotheses, especially given that so far, we have no reason to doubt the current one and every reason to believe that it's either valid, or very nearly so.

As for needing an alternative to be able to recognise a null value, that's not the case either. The current theory makes a prediction. If we don't make an observation that matches prediction within expected tolerance and we can find nothing wrong with the equipment, then the theory is most likely wrong. At that point, you can bet your life that people will be scrabbling to work out how, and what needs to be done to correct (or replace) it.

Think of it this way - what if the theory is correct, and there simply *isn't* any "reasonable and plausible alternative hypothesis" (perhaps because we can't think of any, perhaps because there simply aren't any). Should we *never* attempt to confirm it?

Re:negative outcomes?

[LordVader717]

Try this. The experiment is strikingly similar to the Michelson-Morley interferometer, an experiment which also returned a null-result, trying to detect an "aether" for electrmagnetic waves.

The problem with these kinds experiments though is that results are very easily misinterpreted, because we really have no, shall we say, "creativity" in our imagination about such fundamental physics.

The Sagnac-interferometer (which BTW I will be building for a project) seemed to prove the presence of the aether that the Michelson-Morley experiment couldn't detect. It turned out to be a misinterpretation because they didn't quite grasp the concepts. (It turned out to be very useful anyway, as it's the basis for laser-gyroscopes)

This makes experiments like this even more important because if you are to accept any theories as "confirmed" or develop upon them, you need to research every possible result and implication.

Re:ripples in fabric of space-time?

[RocketRainbow]

Runlevel 5 asked: "what can be used with the information the scientists gain?"

It would certainly explain the fact that there seems to be an upper limit on the rotational frequency of neutron stars (pulsars). Likewise, you can also expect to see gravity waves in the oscillation of large stellar bodies in collision, which might also give insight into gamma ray bursts.

One of the most interesting things we can do with gravity waves is look back beyond the cosmic microwave background and watch the early gravitational shape of the universe, perhaps detect a sort of cosmic gravity wave background. It's something we've never done before, so it's a sort of "let's see what we find when we turn this thing on" experiment - we could find all sorts of things about the shape and evolution of the universe which might in turn make a tremendous difference to the way we interpret earth-bound physics.

There is no danger from gravity waves and no apparent engineering purpose (not even warp drive) because they are astonishingly small - even a 4m long laser can't detect them (yet! - some technological improvements are on the way). This is because gravity is such a weak force that the only detectable gravity waves are caused by extremely massive bodies moving at extremely high speeds; even then, the strongest waves are easily able to dissipate to "nothing" before we would ever notice them. (In numbers, the best gravity wave LIGO could ever expect to see would cause the scientist's beautiful assistant to have her dimensions perpendicular to the wave oscillate at an amplitude of 10^-21m.) So it's not just a matter of understanding and engineering gravity waves, rather of using them to confirm or falsify key elements of our physical and cosmological theories.

Of course, theoretical physics has some interesting and wholly unexpected practical outcomes... Your computer uses quantum mechanical transistors - your webcam uses a quantum mechanical CCD (photoelectric effect) and medical tomography, using astronomical algorithms, continues to save lives.