Nearly a decade has passed since an international team of scientists, including Northwestern University astrophysicists, first detected gravitational waves — a historic discovery that confirmed Albert Einstein’s 100-year-old prediction of these subtle quivers in space-time and the mere existence of merging black holes.
Now, the team has received perhaps the best anniversary gift possible.
By analyzing the frequencies of gravitational waves from a merger between two black holes, the team verified Stephen Hawking’s 1971 black-hole area theorem, which states the total surface area of black holes cannot decrease. The signal is the clearest to date detected by the U.S. National Science Foundation Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (NSF LIGO), Virgo and KAGRA (LVK) collaboration. The finding sheds further light on the mysterious nature of black holes, one of the most extreme objects in the universe.
The study was published in the Physical Review Letters. The new paper includes contributions from about a dozen Northwestern coauthors.
“It’s remarkable to celebrate nearly a decade since our first detection with a discovery that confirms one of Stephen Hawking’s famous predictions,” said Northwestern’s Vicky Kalogera, a senior member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC). “This is exactly the kind of breakthrough that shows how gravitational-wave astronomy is reshaping our understanding of black holes, the universe and our place within it.”
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