New physics from space: gravitational waves

Abstract

The first gravitational wave detection and the regular observation of gravitational waves are certainly among the most important scientific goals and technological challenges for the beginning of this millennium. They will open a new window for the observation of the universe. In this thematic project we proposed the first four years of operation of the Mario Schenberg gravitational wave detector, the development of the transducer technology for very high sensitivity performance of this detector, the upgrade of the Schenberg detector for operation at milikelvin temperatures, the development of software for gravitational wave data analysis and data acquisition of this detector and other foreign detectors, and the study of gravitational waves and their sources. The Mario Schenberg gravitational wave detector is composed of a 1.15 ton and 65-cm-diameter CuA16% spherical antenna and was constructed at the University of São Paulo under a large brazilian and international collaboration with full support of FAPESP. It will be operating with an initial target strain noise power spectral density h ~ 2 x 10-21 Hz-½ in a bandwidth of about 50Hz around 3.2 kHz. When operational this detector will be part of an international network of detectors/observatories. The goal of this network is the improvement of the quality and the reliability of the detected signal. (AU)