By Gerard Auger and Eric Plagnol (eds)
World Scientific
In 2016, the first direct detection of gravitational waves – produced more than a billion years ago during the coalescence of two black holes of stellar origin – by the two detectors of the LIGO experiment was a tremendous milestone in the history of science. This timely book provides an overview of the field, presenting the basics of the theory and the main detection techniques.
The discovery of gravitational radiation is extraordinarily important, not only for confirming the key predictions of Einstein’s general relativity, but also for its implications. A new window on the universe is opening up, with more experiments – already built or in the planning stage – joining the effort to perform precise measurements of gravitational waves.
The book, composed of eight chapters, collects the contributions of many experts in the field. It first introduces the theoretical basics needed to follow the discussion on gravitational waves, so that no prior knowledge of general relativity is required. A long chapter dedicated to the sources of such radiation accessible to present and future observations follows. A section is then devoted to the principles of gravitational-wave detection and to the description of present and future Earth- and space-based detectors. Finally, an alternative detection technique based on cold atom interferometry is presented.
