"Originally theorized by Einstein way back when general relativity was first put forth, gravitational waves were finally successfully detected, for the first time, back in 2015: a full 10 years ago. In the time since, we've expanded our total to several hundred detections, with more being discovered all the time in the current (fourth) observing run of the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA detectors."
"[I] sat in on a Kip Thorne lecture at the University of Minnesota. Among other things, Dr. Thorne discussed the impressive improvements in his (and others) LIGO experiment in order to reach the necessary sensitivity. Given what we now know about gravity waves and what is needed to measure them, could any form of Weber bars be made to work?"
The Universe contains multiple forms of energy: normal matter and dark matter in varied structures; dark energy consistent with a cosmological constant; and radiation such as photons and relativistic neutrinos. Gravitational waves are a gravitational form of radiation not described by the Standard Model but propagating through spacetime. General relativity predicted gravitational waves, and a first direct detection occurred in 2015. Several hundred detections now exist and more are being found during the current fourth observing run of LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA. Joseph Weber pursued bar detectors in the 1950s–1960s, but their small physical size imposes a critical sensitivity limitation compared with modern interferometers.
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