First predicted in Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravitational
waves are tiny ripples in spacetime generated by titanic and powerful cosmic
events. The great physicist believed that no equipment would ever be
sensitive to detect these faint cosmic ripples. Fortunately, Einstein was
wrong, but that doesn't mean that the detection of gravitational waves has
been easy.
The history of a planned array interferometer gravitational wave detectors
to be built in Europe during the late 1980s, the reasons this failed, and
the parallels with current detectors, are documented in a new paper
published in The European Physical Journal H, authored by Adele La Rana,
University of Verona, and INFN Section of Sapienza University, Italy.
La Rana explains that following the announcement of the first detections of
gravitational waves by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration in 2016 and 2017,
questions arose regarding "the missed opportunity" of having an array of two
or more long-based GW interferometers in Europe.
"Such an opportunity was indeed discussed among the European groups working
in the field during the 1980s and early 1990s. Several steps were made in
order to establish a European collaboration of some sort, which was called
EUROGRAV," She continues. "However, these attempts to promote a European
network of gravitational wave interferometers failed and EUROGRAV never got
off the ground, leaving no trace in the collective memory of the
gravitational wave research community."
La Rana lists the major historical events as part of the failure of
EUROGRAV, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the economic downturn in
the UK, as well competitiveness and irreconcilable divergences in scientific
approaches.
As well as documenting the reasons for this project's failure, La Rana's
paper details the dawn of the era of second-generation gravitational wave
detectors representing a massive shift in scale.
"My paper gives a special perspective on the transition of the field from
benchtop-experiments to Big Science," she says. "Looking back at EUROGRAV
and at the early attempts to establish in Europe a gravitational wave
observatory is particularly interesting today, on the eve of a new leap of
scale toward the third generation of interferometric detectors.
"Negotiations are indeed underway for the Einstein Telescope project, which
will hopefully be the first pan-European ground-based GW antenna."
Reference:
Adele La Rana, EUROGRAV 1986–1989: the first attempts for a European
Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory, The European Physical
Journal H (2022).
DOI: 10.1140/epjh/s13129-022-00036-x
Tags:
Space & Astrophysics