Abstract
THE 2005 World Year of Physics was dedicated to Albert Einstein, on the centennial of the “miraculous year” when his breakthrough papers on Brownian motion, light quanta and special relativity were published, reshaping modern physics. The year 2005 also marked a major step towards the fulfillment of Einstein’s vision, as scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) delivered high precision instruments that are now listening for gravitational waves, elusive distortions of space-time predicted by General Relativity. To understand the nature of gravitational waves and why an army of physicists and engineers is trying to detect them, it is useful to review how Einstein’s theory of General Relativity redefined our understanding of the Universe.
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© 2007 Praxis Publishing Ltd.
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Cadonati, L. (2007). The Search for Gravitational Waves.... In: State of The Universe 2007. Springer Praxis Books. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68817-6_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68817-6_8
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-34178-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-68817-6
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