Open Questions: Gravitational Waves

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Introduction

Recommended references: Web sites

Recommended references: Magazine/journal articles

Recommended references: Books

Introduction

Recommended references: Web sites

Site indexes

Open Directory Project: Gravitational Waves: Categorized and annotated links. A version of this list is at Google, with entries sorted in "page rank" order.
GEO600 Gravitational Wave Links: Links to gravitational wave research sites and general information on relativity and gravitational waves, at the GEO600 site.
Links to other gravitational wave projects: Links to gravitational wave research sites, at an older version of the GEO600 site.
Galaxy: Gravitational Waves: Categorized site directory. Entries usually include descriptive annotations. More here.

Sites with general resources

LIGO Laboratory Home Page: LIGO, short for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, is the most ambitious project to date for the detection of gravitational waves. The laboratory consists of two separate facilities: the LIGO Livingston Observatory in Louisiana, and the LIGO Hanford Observatory in Washington.
LISA: Laser Interferometer Space Antenna: "The main objective of the LISA mission is to observe gravitational waves from galactic and extra-galactic binary systems, including gravitational waves generated in the vicinity of the very massive black holes found in the centers of many galaxies." If approved, the mission can be launched in 2011.
ESA LISA Mission: ESA Web site for the LISA project. Includes background information on gravitational waves.
GEO 600 Home Page: The German-British Gravitational Wave Detector: Web site of a German research project which "aims at the direct detection of gravitational waves by means of a laser interferometer." The site contains information on the project and some useful external links.
TAMA300: Home page of the 300m Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Antenna in Japan.
VIRGO Project Central Web Site: "The VIRGO collaboration was set up between Italian and French research teams, for the realization of an interferometric gravitational wave detector." It is physically located at the European Gravitational Observatory near Pisa, Italy.
EGO: European Gravitational Observatory: EGO is laboratory responsible for operating the VIRGO gravitational wave detector.
Einstein@Home: Home page of a distributed computing project to search for gravity waves. Some information on gravity waves and a screen saver incorporating the software are available.
Einstein@Home: Another home page, at the University of Adelaide (Australia), of the Einstein@Home project. Provides project statistics and news.

Surveys, overviews, tutorials

Gravity wave: Article from Wikipedia.
Jillian's Guide to Gravitational Waves: A light-hearted introduction to the subject, with useful references and external links. By Jillian Bornak.
Sounding out the Big Bang: June 2007 article from Physics World, by Craig J. Hogan. "Gravitational waves offer a unique way of studying inflation and other fundamental processes of the very early universe, and may even connect string theory with the world of experiment."
Rippling space-time: how to catch Einstein's gravitational waves: Introductory article on techniques for detecting gravitational waves.
Science to ride gravitational waves: Brief November 2005 BBC article on gravitational wave experiments just about ready to begin, especially GEO 600.
Pulsars and Gravity Waves: Transcript of a brief interview with Stephen Ord of the Parkes Observatory.
Gravitational Waves: Short overview page, part of NASA's Imagine the Universe site. Several large-scale projects to detect gravitational waves are mentioned, such as LISA.
Gravity Waves: Brief article by James Schombert.
Fizzlers and Gravity Waves: Outline/notes of a talk by James Imamura. "Fizzers" are aborted supernova events and are a source of gravity waves.
Ripples in Spacetime: Short overview of gravitational waves, from the Science for the Millennium site.
Listening out for the Big Bang: March 2000 news article about the Australian International Gravitational Observatory, which will develop technology to detect gravity waves.
Is gravity a particle or a wave?: Question and answer from Scientific American's Ask the Experts section.

Recommended references: Magazine/journal articles

Relativity's new revolution
David Appell
Physics World, October 2011, pp. 36-41: Rogue black holes kicked from their galactic lairs are among the surprising predictions made by physicists using powerful computers to solve Einstein's equations of general relativity. Some have dubbed this relativity's "new golden age".
An Ear for Spacetime
George Musser
Scientific American, July 2007: Pulsars provide an alternative way to detect gravitational waves.
Catch a Gravity Wave
Marcia Bartusiak
Astronomy, October 2000, pp. 54-59: Construction has been completed on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which is by far the most ambitious experiment designed to detect gravity waves. But careful testing and calibration will be required before observations can begin, possibly in late 2002.
Catch a Wave
Peter Weiss
Science News, January 8, 2000: Sensing ripples in the space-time sea from gravity's juggernauts.
Gravitational Radiation and the Validity of General Relativity
Clifford M. Will
Physics Today, October 1999, pp. 38-43: The ability to detect gravitational waves will make it possible to further test the existing theory of general relativity and offer guidance on extending the theory for unification with other fundamental forces. This is done by using the theory to predict the waveforms expected from one of the most likely source of gravitational waves -- binary systems involving neutron stars and black holes.
LIGO and the Detection of Gravitational Waves
Barry C. Barish; Rainer Weiss
Physics Today, October 1999, pp. 44-50: LIGO is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, consisting of a pair of devices (called interferometers) located 3000 miles apart. Its purpose is to detect and measure gravitational waves coming from any of a number of possible cosmic sources.

Recommended references: Books

Marcia Bartusiak -- Einstein's Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time
Berkley Books, 2003: Bartusiak is a science writer who knows what she's talking about. Though she overindulges in the science writer's characteristic vice of cutesy metaphors (music in this case), she tells the story of gravitational waves straightforwardly and in good journalistic style.
David Blair; Geoff McNamara - Ripples on a Cosmic Sea: The Search for Gravity Waves
Addison-Wesley, 1998: Basic, elementary background on gravitation and relativity. Discusses gravitational waves in relation to astrophysical concepts like pulsars and black holes. Syrveys history and technology of the search for gravitational waves.
[Book review]
P. C. W. Davies - The Search for Gravity Waves
Cambridge University Press, 1980: Explains what gravity waves are, how they may be generated, and technology for detecting them.

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