Gabriela González: How LIGO discovered gravitational waves -- and what might be next
Gabriela González: LIGO 如何發現重力波及其後的可能
Gabriela González is part of the collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists who measured for the first time the gravitational waves that Einstein predicted over 100 years ago. Full bio
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his theory of general relativity,
the planets -- attracts mass,
所有物質和星球──會互相吸引,
as Newton claimed,
all of us, all the planets --
包括我們人類和所有星球,
of space-time.
and that connects us all.
時空聯繫我們所有人,
and distort its contour.
使其形狀發生改變。
not according to Newton's laws,
並非基於牛頓定律,
this space-time curvature
nestles up to us
when masses move,
revolve around one another
which carry energy from the system,
to measure them.
working in many countries
waves for the first time.
around one another --
accelerating in speed,
at almost the speed of light,
into the space of 360 kilometers.
路易斯安那州的面積。
produced gravitational waves
to the rest of the universe.
the effects of these gravitational waves,
is by looking for effects in distances.
才能測量重力波。
passed by Earth,
the distances between you and me,
你和我之間的距離,
stretched and shrank a tiny bit.
is proportional to the distance.
than my slight height,
變化大許多的距離,
between the Earth and the Sun
at Caltech and MIT --
一些有遠見的物理學家,
朗納·德瑞福、萊納·魏斯,
measure distances
distances between mirrors
and many scientists
and develop the ideas.
wave detectors, two interferometers,
through four kilometers in-vacuum,
and then they return.
very, very sensitive;
instruments in the world.
that we want to measure come from space,
來自太空的訊號,
the gravitational wave effects --
and should show up on the two detectors --
from the local effects,
局部作用中區分出來,
either on one or the other.
the second-generation technology
sensitivity that we wanted --
two years later --
仍未達至最佳效果──
collecting a few months' worth of data.
in amplitude and frequency
探測到的訊號都是一樣。
in decoding this type of wave,
that they came from black holes
this would happen until much later;
這樣的事情,直至後來;
ourselves that it was true,
any room for error.
really could measure these things,
produced a difference in the distance
產生的距離相差為
by our standards.
結果仍是可信的。
waves and not sound waves,
and listen to them.
來傾聽這些波動,
to the first two notes of that music.
was the last fraction of a second
emitted vast amounts of energy --
converting into energy,
把三個太陽轉換成能量,
we actually dance to it.
be used for?
what else is there left to do?"
還剩下什麼要做?」
be used for?
"What is the purpose of poetry?"
of the smell of coffee?"
it's for emotion, it's for living."
how everything works,
all of us, everyone, as kids --
每個人還是孩子時──
for the first time and see the stars,
now have a purpose,
a new way to explore the universe.
the light of the stars
to the sound of the universe,
like gravitational waves.
from gravitational waves?
the technology to detect them,
that they are useful.
一百年後才發現其用處。
to derive technology from science,
more and more sensitive --
more black holes
how many there are, where they are
and turn into black holes.
融合並轉化為黑洞。
rotating stars in our galaxy
explosions of supernovas in our galaxy.
在我們的銀河爆炸。
a whole spectrum of new sources.
to the human body:
to silent movies.
very fun, but very long --
international community of scientists,
是一個龐大的國際性團體,
together as a team,
sometimes encountering detours --
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Gabriela González - AstrophysicistGabriela González is part of the collaboration of more than 1,000 scientists who measured for the first time the gravitational waves that Einstein predicted over 100 years ago.
Why you should listen
Gabriela González is a physicist working on the discovery of gravitational waves with the LIGO team. She was born in Córdoba, Argentina, studied physics at the University of Córdoba, and pursued her PhD at Syracuse University, which obtained in 1995. She worked as a staff scientist in the LIGO group at MIT until 1997, when she joined the faculty at Penn State. In 2001 she joined the faculty at LSU, where she is a professor of physics and astronomy. She has received awards from the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society and the National Academy of Sciences, and she is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
González has been a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration since it was funded in 1997, served as the elected LSC spokesperson in 2011-2017, and is known for participating in the announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves in 2016. Her work has focused on LIGO instrument development (especially reducing noise sources and tuning alignment systems) and LIGO data calibration and diagnostics, critical to increasing the astrophysical reach of data analysis methods.
Gabriela González | Speaker | TED.com