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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ligo Analogy Lab—A Set Of Undergraduate Lab Experiments To Demonstrate Some Principles Of Gravitational Wave Detection, Dennis Ugolini, Hanna Rafferty, M. Winter, C. Rockstuhl, A. Bergmann
Ligo Analogy Lab—A Set Of Undergraduate Lab Experiments To Demonstrate Some Principles Of Gravitational Wave Detection, Dennis Ugolini, Hanna Rafferty, M. Winter, C. Rockstuhl, A. Bergmann
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research
The first direct detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in September 2015 proved their existence, as predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and ushered in the era of gravitational-wave interferometry. In this article, we present a set of lab course experiments at different levels of advancement, which give students insight into the basic LIGO operating principle and advanced detection techniques. Starting with methods for folding an optical cavity, we advance to analogy experiments with sound waves that can be detected with a Michelson interferometer with an optical cavity arm. In that experiment, students also …
An Active Galactic Nucleus Caught In The Act Of Turning Off And On, Julia M. Comerford, R Scott Barrows, Francisco Müller Sánchez, Rebecca Nevin, Jenny E. Greene, David Pooley, Daniel Stern, Fiona A. Harrison
An Active Galactic Nucleus Caught In The Act Of Turning Off And On, Julia M. Comerford, R Scott Barrows, Francisco Müller Sánchez, Rebecca Nevin, Jenny E. Greene, David Pooley, Daniel Stern, Fiona A. Harrison
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research
We present the discovery of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) that is turning off and then on again in the z = 0.06 galaxy SDSS J1354+1327. This episodic nuclear activity is the result of discrete accretion events that could have been triggered by a past interaction with the companion galaxy that is currently located 12.5 kpc away. We originally targeted SDSS J1354+1327 because its Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectrum has narrow AGN emission lines that exhibit a velocity offset of 69 km s−1 relative to systemic. To determine the nature of the galaxy and its velocity-offset emission lines, we …