Ripple research

The

(STFC) has invested £7.1m over five years in gravitational wave research at

.

The scientists at the Institute for Gravitational Research will use the funding to upgrade wave detectors such as the Hanover, Germany-based Geo 600 and the US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

The devices are designed to detect ripples in space-time produced by black holes being formed or coalescing in the universe, which manifest themselves as very slight changes in the direction of gravitational force. Detectors such as the Geo 600 emit a laser beam that interferes with gravitational waves created between pairs of pendulums. The fluctuations in the amount of light coming out of the system, caused by the laser’s interaction with the waves, are then recorded on a computer database and later analysed by the scientists for signature fluctuations that represent the space-time ripples.

’So far, we have not detected anything,’ said Prof Jim Hough, director of the Institute for Gravitational Research. ’But, based on theoretical predictions about what the signal sizes should be, and on other observations in astronomy, we believe that we are getting to the stage where the sensitivities are such that we might detect something within the next few years.’