ASU Hosting Guest Physics Lecture

Angelo State University’s Society of Physics Students and Department of Physics and Geosciences will host a special guest lecture by Dr. Dennis Ugolini, chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Trinity University, said a press release Thursday. The lecture, “First Direct Detection of Gravitational Waves,” will begin at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, in the ASU Mathematics-Computer Science (MCS) Building, 2200 Dena Drive. It's open and free to the public.

On Sept. 14, 2015, instruments at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) locations in Hanford, Wash., and Livingston, La., detected a gravitational-wave signal that matches the waveform predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity for the merger of two black holes. This represented the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hold merger.

Ugolini will speak about the LIGO detectors, how information is extracted about the black hole merger from the gravitational-wave signal, the astrophysical implications of the event and various other aspects of the LIGO facilities.

Dr. Juan Blandon of the ASU physics faculty said, “The LIGO discovery has been described worldwide by the media and the physics community as seminal because aside from confirming a prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity 100 years after it was published and black hole predictions made by Stephen Hawking over 40 years ago, the discovery marks the first time mankind has detected such waves, which provide a ‘new set of eyes’ unlike anything we have had available to explore and understand the cosmos.”

Prior to his public lecture, Ugolini will also meet with ASU students at an informal reception. For more information, contact Blandon at 325-486-6787 or [email protected].