EXPERT REACTION: Aussies to probe warped space-time with new gravitational waves research centre

One of the most exciting aspects of the gravitational wave discovery is that gravitational waves provide us with a new window, beside its macroscopic structure, on the microscopic properties of the Universe.

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) draws a curtain in front of even the most powerful telescope, preventing light to propagate to us from earlier than about 400,000 years before the Big Bang. Gravitational waves penetrate the CMB bringing us information on the very Early Universe. This information, created at fractions of a second after the Big Bang, will be vital to decipher the fundamental constituents of the Universe and their interactions.

The gravitational waves from mergers of black holes recently detected by LIGO signal the start of a new era in physics and astronomy, the era in which the super-precise measurement techniques are used to study the dynamics of the warpage of space-time continuum and observe the most extreme astrophysical events in the Universe.

Australia has broad expertise in Gravitational-Wave astrophysics, which is spread between the teams at 6 different Universities.

This center will bring together researchers from Monash, Swinburne, Australian National University, University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne, and University of Western Australia to work together on this rapidly emerging new branch of astrophysics.

Researchers in the centre will focus on detecting gravitational waves by several approaches.

OzGrav scientists will take active part in the analysis of data from LIGO interferometers and will work on techniques to improve LIGO sensitivity to gravitational waves. They will also use the Parkes radio telescope to observe tiny variations in pulsar timing, to search for long-wavelength gravitational waves. The overall goal is to use the new information provided by gravitational waves to learn more about the universe, and to communicate that knowledge to other researchers and the public.

Through this centre, Australian scientists and students will have the opportunity to fully participate in the birth of gravitational wave astronomy.

It will enable us to develop some amazing technologies like quantum squeezing to further enhance the detectors, supercomputers and advanced algorithms to find the waves, and these will lead to a revolution in our understanding of the Universe.

Our announcement earlier this year of the direct detection of gravitational waves from a black hole binary merger marked the beginning of a new field of astronomy. What we can and will discover will always be limited by the sensitivity of our detectors. By supporting a long term, cohesive instrumentation program, OzGrav will ensure that Australian scientists will remain at the forefront of this brand new field whilst Australian industry reaps the benefit of development of cutting edge technologies.

The announcement of the first detection of gravitational waves by Advanced LIGO in February this year was met with worldwide acclaim. It not only demonstrated that Einstein was right but has given rise to the era of gravitational astrophysics. We can now observe the Universe using a completely new sense: gravitational waves. The observations of bursts of gravitational waves from the coalescence of stellar-mass black-hole binary systems was unexpected; who knows what else we will find.
 
The ARC has announced funding of the Centre of Excellence in Gravitational Wave Detection, with Centre Director Professor Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University of Technology. It will build upon and expand Australia’s current role in Advanced LIGO, help develop the next generation of detectors, and make important contributions to the development of gravitational wave astrophysics, providing rich new insights into the birth, life and death of stars and galaxies and the evolution of the Universe.

Winning an Australian Research Council CoE is a very sweet moment for the Australian gravitational wave community. We have a proud tradition in gravitational wave science in this country and have long dreamed of having a CoE to draw our programs together in a single enterprise and to grow and expand our research endeavours.
 
This announcement is particularly timely following close on the heels of ACIGA’s announcement of the first direct detection of gravitational waves by LIGO at Parliament House in February this year. The CoE will usher in a new era of certainty for gravitational wave science in Australia. It will allow us to pursue ambitious research programs in our experimental, theory and data analysis areas which require longer time horizons.
 
During the term of our CoE we will establish the expertise and workforce in Australia to allow us to plan for the development of a third generation gravitational wave detector to be located in this country in the next 15 to 20 years. This would fulfil a long held vision of the gravitational wave community and ensure that Australia has a central role in the future of the amazing new field of gravitational wave astronomy.

The discovery of gravitational waves, as well as confirming Einstein's ideas about gravity, is like gaining an extra sense. We've been seeing the universe - now we can hear it. We can't see black holes collide, but now we can hear them. We can't see neutron stars spiralling around black holes, but now we can hear them. As with all great advances in astronomy, we don't know what we'll see when we open up a new window into the universe. OzGRav is fantastically exciting for the Australian physics and astronomy community. It's great to see the Australian researchers who pursued gravitational waves for so many years being rewarded with the resources to expand this exciting research.

A detector in the US called LIGO recently detected gravitational waves, that are ripples in space-time produced by very energetic events like the collision of two black holes. This discovery was not only an impressive technological and scientific achievement, but it also started a new era in astronomy: with LIGO, we can see things in the Universe that have been invisible so far. LIGO is an international collaboration of over a thousand members, which include researchers in Australia. But still, so far LIGO’s discovery has been seen in the media mostly as an American achievement.
 
This ARC CoE is going to change that perspective, and it will also change the history of Australian astronomy: it is a huge investment in gravitational wave research. Australia is leader in the research for an alternative way to detect gravitational waves, called the pulsar timing array. This CoE will support the ongoing research with both LIGO and pulsar timing arrays. OzGRav will not only help to discover more black hole binaries, but will also lead to many new discoveries: the field of gravitational wave astronomy is young, there are still many unknowns, and Australia will be in the front line of these discoveries. This is a leap forward in Science!

The funding of the new centre is a fantastic step forward that will help Australia play a major role in the development of the cutting-edge field of gravitational wave astronomy. Now that gravitational waves have been detected, we're moving into an era of exploration where we can use gravitational waves to study everything from black holes to supernovae to the build-up of galaxies over the history of the cosmos. Australia has already been a leader in using the technique of pulsar timing to search for a type of gravitational waves that ground-based detectors like LIGO can't see. The additional investment of the centre will allow Australia-based researchers to continue to push the boundaries of our knowledge of the gravitational universe.