<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:#1F497D;}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-GB" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Reminder of today’s colloquium on the discovery of gravitational waves, something “even more important than the discovery of the Higgs” (according to at least one astrophysicist). Note room change to JA3.25.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">PRL Announcement<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><a href="http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102">http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">BBC News reportage<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35524440">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35524440</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35553549">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35553549</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35523676">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35523676</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Subject:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"> Colloquium, LIGO Detection of Gravitational Waves 24/2/2016: "Matters of Gravity: 3" Nick Lockerbie (Strathclyde)
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The next colloquium will be given by Dr Nick Lockerbie (Strathclyde) on the recently announced direct detection of gravitational waves by LIGO. All are welcome, undergraduates especially. Note change from usual venue.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Title: Matters of Gravity: 3<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Speaker: Dr Nick Lockerbie (Physics, Strathclyde)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Venue: John Anderson Building JA3.25<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Time/Date: 3pm Wednesday 24<sup>th</sup> February 2016<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Abstract:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On 14 September, 2015, at 09:50 and 45 seconds, UTC (Coordinated Universal Time—a similar time to that of the GMT time zone) the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States observed
simultaneously a transient gravitational-wave signal. It was the middle of the night at both LIGO Hanford WA (01:50 and 45 seconds), and LIGO Livingston LA (03:50 and 45 seconds), but low-latency, automatic, search algorithms, designed for the detection of
generic gravitational-wave transients, reported the detection within 3 minutes of data acquisition. The LIGO detectors, each measuring 4 km x 4 km, are arguably the most sensitive detectors on Earth. They are capable of detecting differential changes in
the dimensions of space itself on the order of 10^-19 m Hz^-1/2, at frequencies ~200 Hz, and they recorded these transient signals with a signal-to-noise ratio of 24. Astrophysical models subsequently showed the signals to have come from a binary Black-Hole
merger, approximately 1.3 billion light-years away. I shall discuss the nature of gravitational waves (GWs), the design of the LIGO instruments and how the GWs were detected, and the part that the University of Strathclyde played in this extraordinary discovery.
I shall conclude with some comments on the nature of this particular source of gravitational waves, and what this might augur for the future.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">----<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Dr Daniel K. L. Oi<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Lecturer, Quantum Information<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Computational Nonlinear & Quantum Optics<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">SUPA Department of Physics<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">University of Strathclyde<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Glasgow G4 0NG<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">United Kingdom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Tel: +44 141 548 3112<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Fax: +44 141 552 2891<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Web: cnqo.phys.strath.ac.uk<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">The Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Rated No. 1 in the UK by the UK led Research Excellence Framework (REF2014).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><br>
The University of Strathclyde is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, number SCO15263<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>