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Dr. Steven Penn, Department of Physics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, gives a talk for the Physics & Astronomy Fall 2016 Seminar SeriesContributed by Jill Ackerman on 09/11/16 You are invited to join the Ithaca College department of Physics & Astronomy for a talk by Dr. Steven Penn, Department of Physics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges entitled: How LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves The detection of gravitational waves — 100 years after Einstein predicted their existence — is a major milestone in Physics. The observation of the coalescence of two black holes marks the dawn of Gravitational Wave Astronomy. Yet equally as impressive is the confluence of experimental techniques that allows LIGO to achieve a length precision that is 10,000 times smaller than a proton. I will discuss the GW detection, how LIGO works, and why we must increase its sensitivity another factor 10. Steven Penn is a Professor of Physics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He received his PhD in nuclear physics from MIT, and then migrated to gravitational physics as a postdoc. He has been a member of the LIGO Science Collaboration (LSC) since its founding He currently chairs the LSC’s research on mirror coating thermal noise. Tuesday, September 13 Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact the department assistant at jackerman@ithaca.edu. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible. |
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