Discovery of Gravitational Waves—
The Indian Contributions
Answers
Answer:
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Explanation:
One of the landmark discoveries of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries so far is the discovery of Gravitational
Waves (GW). The existence of GW was predicted exactly 100
years ago by Albert Einstein based on his General Theory of
Relativity. It is interesting to know that he did not believe
that the GW will be discovered in the laboratory. Why? It is
because the amplitude of the GW will be so small (10-21m) that
no experiments will be able to measure this small displacement,
corresponding to about 1 millionth of the diameter of proton.
The beauty of the theory made the experimentalists design
appropriate experiments to detect such a small displacement.
For the last 25 years, about 1000 scientists from more than 25
countries are actively involved in this task. In this team, there are
37 Indian scientists working in various academic and research
institutions in India. On 14 September, 2015, scientists were able
to detect the arrival of a GW that originated about 1.3 billion
years ago. They were able to observe GW using the facilities at
two Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatories (LIGO) in
the US. They got the wave pattern exactly as predicted by Albert
Einstein using his General Theory of Relativity.
Einstein showed that the space time surrounding a massive
object is curved. And any particle moving in the vicinity of this
object will trace a curved path instead of a straight line. The
curved path taken up by the particle will appear as though it is being attracted by a force from the massive object. This
generates what is called gravitational field. The curvature of the
space surrounding a massive object will depend on the mass of
the object. Any significant event in the universe will generate
disturbances in the gravitational field and will produce GW.
There are 37 Indian scientists from IISER Thiruvananthapuram
and Kolkata, IIT Ahmedabad, TIFR, Institute of Mathematical
Sciences, Chennai, Inter University Consortium for Astronomy
and Astrophysics ( IUCAA) Pune , Raman Research Institute ,
Bangalore and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, who are
active participants in this global initiative of LIGO experiments.
The machines that gave scientists their first-ever glimpse
at GW are the most advanced detectors ever built for sensing
tiny vibrations in the universe. The two US-based underground
detectors are known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitationalwave Observatory or LIGO for short. India is aiming to get the
world’s third LIGO at an estimated cost of 1,000 crore. As part
of the ongoing Indo–US cooperation in science and technology,
America will provide India with nearly $140 million worth of
equipment. Professor C. S. Unnikrishnan from TIFR is the leader
of Indian LIGO experiment. He is one of the 137 authors of the
research paper published in Physical Review Letters in February
2016. It is hoped that the Indian LIGO will be functional within
a couple of years.
The GW opens up another window for astronomy. The
observatory will be operated jointly by IndIGO and LIGO and
would form a single network along with the LIGO detectors in
the USA and Virgo in Italy. The design of the detector will be
identical to that of the Advanced LIGO detectors in the USA.
Answer:
Gravitational waves were first detected in September 2015 LIGO with contribution from two Indian scientists — late CV Vishveshwara and Sanjeev Dhurandhar.
Explanation: