Will We Find Gravity Waves?

Physics professor involved in ground-breaking research

Summerscales上个月在bet365中文大学的研究研讨会上展示了她的研究.

随着研究人员即将在重力和引力波领域取得革命性的发现，科学界实际上已经处于紧张的边缘. Tiffany Summerscales, associate professor of physics at Andrews University, 是激光干涉仪引力波天文台(LIGO)合作项目的活跃研究员. Additionally, 10月，Summerscales参加了第七届年度研究庆祝研讨会, 它旨在突出bet365中文大学教师和研究生最近和当前的研究.

Summerscales explains the basis of this research saying, 爱因斯坦的广义相对论假定质量会弯曲时空. When the distribution of mass changes, 曲率也会发生变化，这种变化会像池塘里的涟漪一样向外扩散. These ripples, also called gravitational waves, are very faint. Only the most significant events in the universe, 就像超新星(一种短暂地超过整个星系的爆炸), 或者大质量物体能够产生可测量强度的引力波.”

这台机器的特点是激光和反射镜最近经过了几次升级. LIGO是为了首次探测这些引力波而设计的. Once these evasive ripples are caught, 它们将揭示释放它们的尸体的重要信息. Additionally, 这些引力波将使观测从未被观测到的科学现象成为可能, such as neutron stars and black holes colliding, seeing into the heart of a supernova, and looking back to the moment of the universe’s creation.

“大约从2000年开始，我就是LIGO合作项目的一员，”Summerscales说. “I started when I was in graduate school.”

The collaboration in which Summerscales works, the burst working group, 是否对发现超新星爆炸等短时间信号特别感兴趣. 随着探测器对引力波的敏感度提高，对地面运动和其他噪声源的敏感度降低，研究预计将在未来两年内达到顶峰.

“When LIGO reaches its full sensitivity within the next year, its going to be 10 times more sensitive than it was originally, it will survey a much bigger volume of space,” she explains. “Our chances of detecting something have gone up significantly.”

Summerscales回忆起她作为物理学家和LIGO研究小组成员的开始时说, “当我决定去读研究生的时候，我四处寻找我感兴趣的研究. I had done some work with high-energy physics, 所以我知道我喜欢和很多人合作.”

She continues, “LIGO刚刚起步，我真的很喜欢爱因斯坦的相对论, I thought it was really cool. So this was a combination of all my interests.”

Summerscales与来自世界各地的一组研究人员合作. Once or twice a year the whole collaboration gets together, 像突发工作小组这样的小小组每周开会一次, via voice services like TeamSpeak.

作为一名学生，Summerscales对数学和物理很感兴趣，并进行了相关的研究. 在bet365中文大学期间，她与玛格丽塔·马丁利密切合作, chair of the Department of Physics.

“Math was my very favorite subject in school and especially high school; I liked science too. I wanted to apply math to science problems. 所以我对自己说，哪门科学有最多的数学? And that’s how I got into physics,” she says. “I did my Honors research with Dr. Mattingly. 我和她一起做了一个高能物理项目，并能和她一起去德国深造.”

Now as a faculty member herself, Summerscales将她多年的研究经验传授给那些与她接触的人. Summerscales表示，作为LIGO团队成员的一个好处是，她有能力影响自己学生的学习.

“I do a lot research with my students. LIGO研究帮助我指导他们进行自己的研究项目. 我有学生和我一起研究LIGO，我们的bet365中文LIGO小组进行数据分析, 这意味着学生们可以帮助编写和测试程序，这些程序可以从多个仪器的数据中提取和表征引力波,” she says. “我也有学生和我一起做公共推广项目. 一个学生甚至编写电脑游戏来帮助孩子们对引力科学产生兴趣.”

Overall, 参与LIGO合作的开创性研究对Summerscales来说是有回报的.

“I really enjoy working with the LIGO group; it’s exciting research,” she says. “这是一个很好的环境，每个人都互相帮助，你们都在朝着这个研究目标共同努力.”

这个研究项目预计在不久的将来会有结果.

“我们可能很快就会幸运地抓住发生在我们附近的一些强大的事情,” says Summerscales. 他说:“我们希望最多在未来一两年内看到一些东西.”

To keep up to date with the latest LIGO progress, visit ligo.org.

有关bet365中文大学物理系的更多信息，请访问bet365中文.edu/physics, email physics@afroradionetwork.com or call 269-471-3430.