Technology
  1. Home
  2. Tech
  3. Science
Save
Print
License article

Nobel Prize favourite David Reitze wants gravitational wave detector for Australia

Marcus Strom

It's not every day you get to sit down with a bloke who is tipped as "guaranteed" to win the Nobel Prize for physics this year.

David Reitze and his team of a thousand scientists last year announced they had found gravitational waves, the last unproven prediction emerging from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Up Next

Dozens dead in Texas church shooting

null
Video duration
00:33

More World News Videos

null
Video duration
00:52

The sound of gravitational waves

null
Video duration
00:33

Dozens dead in Texas church shooting
null
Video duration
00:50

Man arrested in assault on Senator Rand ...
null
Video duration
02:04

Sacked Catalonia leader taken into custody
null
Video duration
01:58

Saudi purge consolidates Prince's power
null
Video duration
00:33

The world's most elaborate used car ad
null
Video duration
01:22

Trump touches down in Japan
More videos

The sound of gravitational waves

Scientists around the world are so ecstatic at hearing the sound of two black holes colliding they begin to chirp.

The paper announcing the discovery of ripples in space-time caused by the cataclysmic merger of two huge black holes 1.3 billion light years away was published just 11 days after the cut-off date for the 2016 Nobel Prizes.

Now Professor Reitze is in Australia and lobbying the government to build one of the next generation of gravitational-wave detectors here.

Related Articles

Einstein predicted that massive accelerating objects such as colliding black holes or neutron stars would cause the very fabric of space-time to ripple, sending waves across space.

However, he thought they would be so tiny as to be undetectable.

Advertisement

But in February last year, Professor Reitze announced that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory had detected the undetectable and a new branch of astronomy was born.

"It was a technological tour de force and proved Einstein right, but that's not why it was important," said Professor Reitze, executive director of LIGO.

"It's important because it opens a whole new window on the universe. We are now going to be able to look at the universe in gravitational-wave emissions, a completely different kind of information carrier."

Professor Reitze said LIGO is five months into its second run and expects to make further announcements in a month or so about new observations.

Most astronomy up to now – from X-rays through visual light to radio waves – has been in the electromagnetic spectrum.

Gravitational waves are a new kind of source and its great promise is to unlock some of the deepest secrets of the universe.

"One of the holy grails of this field would be to see the gravitational-wave residue of the Big Bang," Professor Reitze said.

Extreme environments, nanoseconds after the Big Bang or at the edges of black holes, are where the dynamical strong field regime operates, as opposed to the weak field that governs things like the orbit of planets, or the falling of apples.

"By probing the strong field regime using gravitational waves, we might see hints that general relativity isn't quite right and this will point a way towards a more fundamental understanding of gravity," he said.

This could help unite our theories of gravity with electromagnetic and nuclear forces and ultimately with quantum mechanics.

There are also technological spin-offs in terms of metrology and optics.

"The CSIRO broke world records in optical flatness with the mirrors it produced for us," Professor Reitze said, adding that LIGO requires the most stable lasers in the world, which will have use far beyond astronomy.

Professor Reitze, executive director of LIGO, on Tuesday delivered a lecture on their discovery at the University of Sydney as part of its Sydney Ideas series. However, he is also here to build support for construction of a next-generation detector in Australia.

It won't be cheap. LIGO has cost US taxpayers more than one billion dollars over 40 years.

In the last round of Australian Research Council funding, a consortium led by Swinburne University was successful in gaining $31.3 million in federal funding to establish OzGrav – a centre of excellence for gravitational wave discovery.

The director of OzGrav, Professor Matthew Bailes, said: "There are geometric reasons why it makes sense to have a detector in the southern hemisphere."

Professor David McClelland at the Australian National University was the Australian spokesperson for the LIGO discovery last year. He is working on the quantum squeezing of light that should help optimise gravitational wave detection.

He said: "Preliminary studies show that Australia is the best place to build the first [next generation] facility. [Given the cost] that would prove difficult, but we are talking about a facility which is some 12 to 15 years in the future."

Professor Reitze said: "I'm having some discussions with some government officials to try to assess the interest and budgets."

One of those officials is Australia's Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, who declined to comment for this story.

Professor Bailes said that a detector would be brilliant for the centre, but there was plenty of great science in gravitational-wave astronomy to be getting on with, without one.

"This is the dawn of a new age of astronomy," he said.

One senior Australian astronomer, who did not wish to be named, said that while it was a terrifically exciting prospect to have a gravitational-wave detector in Australia it was at least a decade away.

"The community's highest priorities are in radio and optical astronomy and we should play to our strengths," he said.

Australia is looking to join the European Southern Observatory and the European Space Agency and is a central partner for the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array.

Science Minister Arthur Sinodinos said: "A gravitational-wave detector built in Australia could be considered through our support for research infrastructure. Our aim is to ensure our scientists have access to the best research infrastructure in the world so that they are preferred partners in international collaborations."

Professor Reitze said: "Australia played a really big role in the discovery, not just in the optics developed by CSIRO. The problem is that CSIRO is no longer in the business of doing the type of optics we need."

And what of his chances of winning a Nobel Prize this year?

Professor Reitze said: "Who are we to speculate what the Nobel committee will do? But if we win, it will be a vindication of a field that has a very complicated history. A lot of the astronomy community looked at those working in gravitational wave and said: 'You guys are crazy'.

"Now we can say this is going to be one of the most exciting fields of science in the next 20 to 30 years. This is the next big thing."