The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) is a scientific collaboration of international physics institutes and research groups dedicated to the search for
gravitational waves
Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1893 and then later by H ...
.
History
The LSC was established in 1997, under the leadership of
Barry Barish
Barry Clark Barish (born January 27, 1936) is an American experimental physicist and Nobel Laureate. He is a Linde Professor of Physics, emeritus at California Institute of Technology and a leading expert on gravitational waves.
In 2017, Bar ...
. Its mission is to ensure equal scientific opportunity for individual participants and institutions by organizing research, publications, and all other scientific activities, and it includes scientists from both LIGO Laboratory and collaborating institutions. Barish appointed
Rainer Weiss
Rainer "Rai" Weiss ( , ; born September 29, 1932) is a German-American physicist, known for his contributions in gravitation, gravitational physics and astrophysics. He is a professor of physics emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...
as the first spokesperson.
LSC members have access to the US-based
Advanced LIGO detectors
A sensor is often defined as a device that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus. The stimulus is the quantity, property, or condition that is sensed and converted into electrical signal.
In the broadest definition, a sensor is a devi ...
in
Hanford, Washington and in
Livingston, Louisiana
Livingston is the parish seat of Livingston Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,769 at the 2010 census.
Livingston hosts one of the two LIGO gravitational wave detector sites, the other one being located in Hanford, Washin ...
, as well as the
GEO 600 detector in
Sarstedt
Sarstedt () is a town in the Hildesheim (district), district of Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany. It has approximately 18,500 inhabitants. Sarstedt is situated 20 km south of Hanover and 10 km north of Hildesheim. Sarstedt station is o ...
, Germany. Under an agreement with the
European Gravitational Observatory
The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) is a consortium established to manage the Virgo interferometer and its related infrastructure, as well as to promote cooperation in the field of gravitational wave research in Europe. It was founded D ...
(EGO), LSC members also have access to data from the
Virgo detector in
Pisa
Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...
, Italy. While the LSC and the Virgo Collaboration are separate organizations, they cooperate closely and are referred to collectively as "LVC". The
KAGRA
The Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) is a large interferometer designed to detect gravitational waves predicted by the general theory of relativity. KAGRA is a Michelson interferometer that is isolated from external disturbances: its mi ...
observatory's collaboration has joined the LIGO-Virgo collective, and the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collective is called "LVK".
The LSC Spokesperson is Patrick Brady of
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The Executive Director of the LIGO Laboratory is
David Reitze
David Howard Reitze (born 6 January 1961) is an American laser physicist who is professor of physics at the University of Florida and served as the scientific spokesman of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory ( LIGO) experime ...
from the
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
.
On 11 February 2016, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announced that they succeeded in making the first direct
gravitational wave observation
Gravitational-wave astronomy is a subfield of astronomy concerned with the detection and study of gravitational waves emitted by astrophysical sources.
Gravitational waves are minute distortions or ripples in spacetime caused by the acceleration ...
on 14 September 2015.
In 2016, Barish received the
Enrico Fermi Prize
The Enrico Fermi Prize, first awarded in 2001, is given by the Italian Physical Society (Società Italiana di Fisica). It is a yearly award of €30,000 honoring one or more Members of the Society who have "particularly honoured physics with thei ...
"for his fundamental contributions to the formation of the LIGO and LIGO-Virgo scientific collaborations and for his role in addressing challenging technological and scientific aspects whose solution led to the first detection of gravitational waves".
Collaboration members
Membership of LIGO Scientific Collaboration as of November 2015 is detailed in this table:
Notes
References
External links
*
LIGO Magazine
{{Gravitational waves
Gravitational-wave astronomy
Astronomy in the United States
Organizations based in California
Organizations based in Massachusetts
Organizations established in 1997
Albert Einstein Medal recipients