THE ARC CENTRE of excellence FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DISCOVERY
A new window of discovery.
A new age of gravitational wave astronomy.
A new age of gravitational wave astronomy.
One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein produced one of the greatest intellectual achievements in physics, the theory of general relativity. In general relativity, spacetime is dynamic. It can be warped into a black hole. Accelerating masses create ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves (GWs) that carry energy away from the source. Recent advances in detector sensitivity led to the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015. This was a landmark achievement in human discovery and heralded the birth of the new field of gravitational wave astronomy. This was followed in 2017 by the first observations of the collision of two neutron-stars. The accompanying explosion was subsequently seen in follow-up observations by telescopes across the globe, and ushered in a new era of multi-messenger astronomy.
The mission of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) is to capitalise on the historic first detections of gravitational waves to understand the extreme physics of black holes and warped spacetime, and to inspire the next generation of Australian scientists and engineers through this new window on the Universe.
OzGrav is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence funding scheme, and is a partnership between Swinburne University (host of OzGrav headquarters), the Australian National University, Monash University, University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne, and University of Western Australia, along with other collaborating organisations in Australia and overseas.
INSTRUMENTATION
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DATA
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ASTROPHYSICS
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OzGrav scientists and engineers are developing state of the art instrumentation for Advanced LIGO, the Square Kilometre Array and the next generation of gravitational wave detectors |
OzGrav researchers sift through Petabytes of data to search for gravitational waves from black holes and neutron stars. |
OzGrav astrophysicists use the gravitational waves detected by advanced LIGO and the SKA to probe the Universe in new and unique ways. |
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RECENT NEWS
18 May 2019: Congratulations to Professor David McClelland for being elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science for his career achievements in the detection of Gravitational Waves. Article
17 April 2019: Positions available - Einstein-First project for PhD or Masters by Research or as a Research Associate at UWA Perth or ANU Canberra. Read more UWA PhD
11 April 2019: Congratulations to Prof Linqing Wen, Dr Qi Chu and the group at UWA, as their SPIIR pipeline officially joins the O3 automatic public alert processing. This good news follows another fantastic milestone, with SPIIR detecting the first binary black hole candidate from the LIGO-Virgo 3rd observing run. Read more.
27 Mar 2019: LIGO and Virgo detectors prepare to start their third observing run O3 on 1st April 2019. After a series of upgrades including "squeezing", LIGO - which consists of twin detectors located in Washington and Louisiana, USA - is now about 40% more sensitive. This means that it can survey an even larger volume of space for powerful, wave-making events, such as the collisions of black holes. Read more
Image: LIGO team members (left-to-right: Fabrice Matichard, Sheila Dwyer, Hugh Radkins) install in-vacuum equipment as part of the squeezed-light upgrade. Credit: Nutsinee Kijbunchoo/ANU
4 Dec 2018: Scientists reveal largest black hole merger event yet witnessed. An international group of scientists, including dozens of Australians, this weekend announced the detection of the most massive binary black hole merger yet witnessed in the universe. The black hole that resulted from this cataclysmic event is more than 80 times as massive as our Sun. Read more....
21 August 2018: OzGrav is delighted to be involved in a new art-science planetarium show that will have its world premier at the Melbourne International Arts Festival from October 6-13, 2018. Particle/Wave is directed by Alicia Sometimes, and includes narration by OzGravers Kendall Ackley, Lilli Sun, and Alan Duffy, along with video contributions from our own Mark Myers and Carl Knox. 
12 April 2018: A new data mining technique developed by OzGrav scientists at Monash may let us detect the faint background hum of gravitational waves permeating the universe. The exciting result is described in The Age and ABC news, and on TV on the 7:30 Report. 
Artistic impression of the background hum of gravitational waves permeating the Universe. Credit: Carl Knox, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)
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