The University hopes to play an important role in one of the most notable scientific discoveries of the 21st century using “Mike,” the new supercomputer.
University researchers are working in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory to detect tiny gravitational waves.
Through the LIGO project, researchers hope to solve one of the most enduring puzzles in physics and directly observe gravitational waves, said Chancellor Mark Emmert.
Physics and astronomy chair William Metcalf said the project lets the University participate in a highly visible and recognized science project around the world.
“It raises our standee in the scientific community, [and] it’s a real opportunity for LSU to get exposure,” Metcalf said.
The specifics of the project are technical, tracing back to Albert Einstein.
Einstein predicted in his general theory of relativity that moving matter vibrates and sends out gravitational waves. University physicists are confident LIGO, located in a Livingston facility, will detect them.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology and LSU are running the project. The National Science Foundation financed the $350 million research in Louisiana and in Hanford, Wash.
“Any mass that accelerates does produce [gravitational waves], but they are produced in such tiny amounts that we do not feel them directly,” said physics professor Jorge Pullin.
The facility has mirrors four kilometers apart inside a vacuum. The mirrors are hanging from wires and they are free to move, which means if a wave goes by, they actually will move a little bit, Pullin said.
Einstein’s theory of relativity predicts gravitational waves change in distance. However, the small size of this change makes it difficult to detect. Detection would be direct proof of the existence of gravitational waves, said Gabriela Gonzalez, physics professor and LIGO researcher.
“By sending a laser beam to one mirror and back and then to the other and back, we can compare the light that comes back,” Pullin said. “From this, we can tell how much the mirror has moved.”
The University’s supercomputer, Super Mike, is being used to detect these waves, which would be one billionth the width of a hair.
“LSU scientists now have at their disposal a computer that will do very large-scale modeling of the gravitational waves phenomenon,” Emmert said.
The process is lengthy because instruments have to be constantly enhanced and debugged. Currently, the researchers have not detected any change.
Physicists hope to make a detection sometime next year.
Gonzalez said if LIGO detects the waves, the world will have information about the astronomical systems that produced them. Researchers can then use this information the same way they use information from other telescopes.
“Every time a new kind of telescope has been used — microwave, radio, X-rays, Gamma ray telescopes — we have been surprised with new observations,” Gonzalez said. “Gravitational wave telescopes will probably be no exception and will open a new window to the universe.”