A lecture-symposium series from the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India and International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Exploring the Universe with Gravitational Waves: Kip Thorne
Six years ago LIGO initiated gravitational-wave astronomy, and with it the beginning of a revolution in our understanding of the universe. In this lecture I will briefly describe the gravitational waves with which LIGO explores the universe, the discoveries about black holes and neutron stars that LIGO has made in these past six years, a vision for the future of gravitational-wave astronomy, and the central role that LIGO-India will play.
The Technology of Gravitational-wave Detectors: Rana Adhikari
The detection of gravitational waves required driving many high precision technologies to their physical limits. In this talk, I will describe how the detection works, what obstacles were overcome, and what the future will require. These technologies have been making their way into other fields and industries over the past few decades. The new push towards exploiting quantum enhanced measurements and quantum engineered materials has the potential to revolutionize not only the field of gravitational wave detection, but also measurement, communication, and a host of other, earthly, ventures.
