Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference

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The Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy in the Centenary of Einstein's Theory of Relativity

Faculty #49
Discipline: Physics
Subcategory: STEM Research

Mario C. Diaz - University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Co-Author(s): Matthew Benacquista


In this poster we discuss the participation of the CGWA in the efforts to detect gravitational waves with the Advanced LIGO detectors. The Advanced LIGO detectors are funded by NSF to detect gravitational waves from astrophysical sources, including the merger of compact binary objects like Black Holes and neutron stars, other cataclysmic explosions that occur in our universe, and even the murmurs remnant of the big explosion in which our universe originated. On September 18 of 2015 Advanced LIGO started its first scientific run after a major instrumentation upgrade that have increased its sensitivity many times. In this poster we present some results from this first run and the contributions of our center as a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (the multinational multi-institutional scientific collaboration that process and studies the data from the detectors and sustains their operational effort). These results will be presented in 2016 when the community celebrates the hundredth anniversary of the prediction of the existence of gravitational waves as a result of the theory Einstein developed in 2015.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): National Science Foundation: National Aeronautic and Space Administration

Faculty Advisor: None Listed,

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.