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Tutorial

Welcome to the Cardiff Gravitational Physics tutorial pages. We have put together a few pages describing our research into black holes and gravitational waves. We hope you enjoy them.

Also, why not try searching for gravitational waves with our game black hole hunter.

Two Minute Introduction

Artists impression of a black hole, jets and disk.

A brief introduction to black holes and gravitational waves, with a discussion of the effects of gravitational waves as well as the Hulse-Taylor pulsar - the most famous source of gravitational waves.

1. Black holes and Gravitational Waves
2. The Effect of Gravitational Waves
3. The Hulse-Taylor Binary Pulsar

Gravitational Wave Sources

Two merging black holes and the gravitational radiation emitted.

Very massive and fast moving systems will give off gravitational waves. By observing the gravitational wave signal from these systems we will learn more about the universe around us.

4. Black Hole Collisions
5. Supermassive Black Holes
6. Wobbling Neutron Stars

Gravitational Wave Detectors

Gravitational wave detector.

A network of gravitational wave detectors has been built around the world. The goal is the first direct detection of gravitational waves. There is also a space based decector planned.

7. Introduction
8. GEO 600: Laser interferometric gravitational wave detector
9. LIGO: Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
10. Virgo: ground based interferometer detector
11. Advanced Detectors
12. Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)

Graph showing the gravitational wave signal detected vs. time.

Link to Full-size Image [16 KB]

Detecting Gravitational Waves

Even in the very sensitive gravitational wave detectors, the signal we are looking for is very weak. Many sophisiticated methods have been developed to enable us to differentiate a gravitational wave signal from the background noise.

13. Disentangling Gravitational Waves from Noisy Detectors
14. Searching for a known waveform
15. Searching for the unknown

Unveiling the origins of the Universe

The CMB as seen by the COBE satellite.

Gravitational interactions were particularly important in the early universe. Cosmological observations help us to understand the part gravity played in the evolution of the universe.

16. Anisotropy of the microwave background radiation
17. Observing relic gravitational waves
18. Generation of relic gravitational waves
19. Squeezed quantum states of relic gravitational waves

Tutorial Contents