Detecting gravity waves from binary black holes
Creators
Description
One of the most attractive possible sources of strong gravitational waves would be a binary system comprising massive black holes (BH). The gravitational radiation from a binary is an elliptically polarized, periodic wave which could be observed continuously - or at intervals whenever a detector was available. This continuity of the signal is certainly appealing compared to waiting for individual pulses from infrequent random events. It also has the advantage over pulses that continued observation can increase the signal-to-noise ratio almost indefinitely. Furthermore, this system is dynamically simple; the theory of the generation of the radiation is unambiguous; all characteristics of the signal can be precisely related to the dynamical parameters of the source. The current situation is that while there is no observational evidence as yet for the existence of massive binary BH, their formation is theoretically plausible, and within certain coupled constraints of mass and location, their existence cannot be observationally excluded. Detecting gravitational waves from these objects might be the first observational proof of their existence
Additional details
Publishing Information
- Imprint Title
- Relativistic Gravitational Experiments in Space
- Imprint Pagination
- 242 p.
- Journal Page Range
- p. 14-17.
- Report number
- N--90-19940
Conference
- Title
- Workshop on relativistic gravitation experiments in space.
- Dates
- 28-30 Jun 1988.
- Place
- Annapolis, MD (USA).
INIS
- Country of Publication
- United States
- Country of Input or Organization
- United States
- INIS RN
- 21081162
- Subject category
- S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
- Resource subtype / Literary indicator
- Conference
- Descriptors DEI
- BLACK HOLES; DETECTION; EXPERIMENT PLANNING; GRAVITATIONAL WAVES; MEASURING METHODS; NEUTRON STARS; POLARIZATION; RADIATION SOURCES; SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO; WHITE DWARF STARS
- Descriptors DEC
- DWARF STARS; PLANNING; STARS
Optional Information
- Secondary number(s)
- NASA-CP--3046; NAS--1.55:3046; CONF-8806193--.