In 1915, Einstein predicted the existence of traveling disturbances in the space-time continuum called gravitational waves.
Nearly 100 years later, scientists have inferred from indirect lines of evidence that the universe is filled with these ripples, but have not directly detected them.
Andrea Lommen, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Franklin and Marshall College, hopes to change that.
The Department of Physics at WVU will host Lommen as she presents “Measuring Einstein’s Last Great Legacy: Wrinkles in Space-Time” on March 11 at 7:30 p.m. in G20 Ming Hsieh Hall.
Lommen’s research is concerned with using pulsars to detect gravitational waves. Pulsars are rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars formed in the supernova explosions of massive stars.
The radio pulses from pulsars can be used as highly accurate celestial clocks.
Lommen’s talk is concerned with increasing the sensitivity of the pulsar timing array, which is a collection of millisecond pulsars that act as very accurate and predictable clocks distributed throughout the galaxy.
Passing gravitational waves affect the arrival times of the pulses from pulsars. Therefore, with precise pulsar timing these waves could be detected.
Her talk on gravitational wave observatories will discuss these advancements and the nature of exotic objects that can only be indirectly observed by the eye, like black holes, gamma-ray bursts and supernova explosions.
Lommen’s visit to Morgantown comes as part of a North American Nanohertz Observatory of Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) meeting, of which she is chair, to discuss a number of experiments on the brink of detecting gravitational waves.
Maura McLaughlin and Duncan Lorimer, assistant professors in WVU’s Department of Physics, are also members of NANOGrav, which is sensitive to massive black holes with masses billions of times that of the sun.
In the next 10 years, NANOGrav expects to detect the signature of thousands of massive black holes merging with other massive black holes early in the history of our universe.
Lommen earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Carleton College and a master’s degree in physics from the University of Pennsylvania.
She also received a master’s degree in astronomy and a doctoral degree in astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Maura McLaughlin at 304-293-3422 or Maura.McLaughlin@mail.wvu.edu.
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