PONTIANAK NEWS – A research paper using a new method scientists have found to analyze the waves emitted by black holes when they collide. This new cosmic model can reveal what’s inside colliding black holes.
Back in 2015, scientists first detected gravitational waves, the ripples in space-time that occur when major cosmic events, such as the collision and merger of two black holes, disrupt the cosmos.
The observation of these waves confirms Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which predicted such waves would occur if spacetime worked as it believed. In the seven years since then, nearly 100 coalescing black holes have been detected by observing the gravitational waves emitted by these space events.
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Now, thanks to new research, the ability to model these cosmic events has become even more sophisticated. A team of 14 researchers led by Caltech PhD student and Columbia College alum Keefe Mitman (CC’19), Columbia postdoc Macarena Lagos, Columbia Professor Lam Hui, and University of Mississippi professor Leo Stein have come up with an improvement model they developed by paving the way for deeper understanding of the structure of merging black holes.
In Nonlinearities in Black Hole Ringdowns, a new paper published in Physical Review Letters, the team outlines a more complex way to model the signals emitted by gravitational waves by including nonlinear interactions in the model. This modeling method will allow scientists to better understand what structures occur inside black holes, and will also help test whether Einstein’s general theory of relativity correctly describes the behavior of gravity in extreme astrophysical environments.
“This is a major step in preparing us for the next phase of gravitational wave detection, which will deepen our understanding of gravity and the extraordinary phenomena that occur in the far reaches of the cosmos,” explained Lagos, co-author on the paper.
The research comes at an opportune time: this March 2023, the observatory that first detected gravitational waves, will be activated to collect new observations of events occurring in deep space. The observatory has not operated since 2020, when it was closed due to the pandemic. Several other major detectors are expected to start collecting data in the coming years, making it all the more important that they have state-of-the-art models to interpret the incoming information.
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