MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS AND ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES
CONTENTS 1 THE FIRST WEEK WE HAVE COHERENCE 1 2 RESERVATIONS AND COMPLICATIONS MALICIOUS INJECTIONS 17 3 HALF A CENTURY OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTION 49 4 WEEKS 2 AND 3 THE FREEZE RUMORS 57 5 WEEK 4 THE BOX IS OPENED 75 6 WEEK 5 TO THE END OF OCTOBER DIRECTNESS BLACK HOLES 87 7 NOVEMBER RIPPLES BELIEF AND SECOND MONDAY 113 8 NOVEMBER WRITING THE DISCOVERY PAPER 131 9 DECEMBER WEEKS 12 16 THE PROOF REGRESS RELENTLESS PROFESSIONALISM AND THE THIRD EVENT 173 10 JANUARY AND FEBRUARY THE LVC WIDE MEETINGS AND THE SUBMISSION 195 11 THE LAST RIPPLES FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCES TO THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY AND THE REST OF THE WORLD 225 12 CHANGING ORDER THE LONG AHA 255 13 ON THE NATURE OF SCIENCE 289 14 THE BOOK THE AUTHOR THE COMMUNITY AND EXPERTISE 313 1 THE FIRST WEEK WE HAVE COHERENCE C IT IS SEPTEMBER 14 2015 AND I AM IN MY STUDY SITTING ON THE SOFA WITH MY LAPTOP ON MY KNEES THE WAY I SPEND MOST OF MY WAKING LIFE THESE DAYS AS I PREFER TO WORK FROM HOME IT S EVENING AND I AM IDLY READING THE SUBJECT LINES OF THE DOZENS OF EMAILS THAT COME IN EVERY DAY THE LARGEST NUMBER COME FROM THE GRAVITATIONAL WAVE COMMUNITY AND I USUALLY DELETE THEM WITHOUT READING I VE BEEN WORKING WITH THIS COMMUNITY FOR OVER FOUR DECADES NOW LONGER THAN ALL THE ACTIVE GRAVITATIONAL WAVE SCIENTISTS EXCEPT ONE ONCE EVERY SIX MONTHS OR SO I MIGHT SAVE A SHORT STRING OF THESE EMAILS IN A FOLDER IN CASE THEY TURN OUT LATER TO BE OF INTEREST I STUDY HOW SCIENCE IS ACTUALLY DONE IN REAL TIME ONE EMAIL CATCHES MY EYE THE SUBJECT LINE IS VERY INTERESTING EVENT ON ER8 IT HAD COME IN AROUND NOON BRITISH SUMMER TIME THE EMAIL SAYS THAT THE INTERESTING EVENT HAS BEEN SEEN BY THE CWB ANALYSIS PIPELINE THE ABBREVIATION CWB STANDS FOR COHERENT WAVE BURST AND THE BURST GROUP WHICH DEVELOPED THE PIPELINE AND IS TASKED WITH FINDING BURSTS OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES WITHOUT BASING THE SEARCH ON PRECONCEIVED WAVE FORMS THE CWB PIPELINE THEN HAS JUST DETECTED SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE AN INTERESTING BURST OF WAVES A PIPELINE IS A MATHEMATICAL STATISTICAL PROCEDURE THAT IS APPLIED TO THE TORRENT OF DATA THAT POURS OUT OF THE INTER FEROMETRIC DETECTORS DIFFERENT GROUPS OPERATE DIFFERENT PIPELINES BASED ON DIFFERENT PRINCIPLES THEY MAY HAVE MORE THAN ONE EACH TO MONITOR THE DATA STREAMS AND AUTOMATICALLY SEARCH FOR ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE A GRAVI TATIONAL WAVE SIGNAL WHEN THE MACHINES ARE RUNNING SMOOTHLY THERE COULD BE A FEW ALERTS PER WEEK 1 THE EMAIL I HAVE NOTICED IS ADDRESSED PRIMARILY TO THE CBC GROUP BUT ALSO TO OTHER GROUPS CBC STANDS FOR COMPACT BINARY COALESCENCE THIS IS THE GROUP TASKED WITH ANALYZING GRAVITATIONAL WAVE SIGNALS THAT COME FROM BINARY STARS AT THE END OF THEIR LIVES THE SIGNALS EMITTED IN THE LAST MAD SECOND OR SO OF INSPIRAL WHEN THE PAIR OF STARS AS WITH A SKATER DRAWING IN HER ARMS START TO ROTATE FASTER AND FASTER AROUND EACH OTHER UNTIL THEY MERGE INTO ONE HEAVIER STAR THE THEORY SAYS THESE SYSTEMS WILL EMIT A BURST OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES THAT IN THE LAST MOMENTS OF ROTATION AS THE NEW STAR THAT IS BORN OUT OF THE MERGER REVERBERATES WITH COSMIC PASSION MIGHT BE STRONG ENOUGH TO HAVE A CHANCE OF BEING SENSED BY THE EXQUISITE MACHINES THAT HUMANS HAVE PLACED ON EARTH TO CATCH THEM THESE INSPIRALS AND MERGERS CAN BE MODELED THOUGH THE EXACT WAVEFORM DEPENDS ON THE MASS OF EACH COMPONENT IN THE INSPIRAL AND THE WAY THEY ARE SPINNING THERE IS AN ALMOST INFINITE NUMBER OF POSSIBLE COMBINATIONS AND WHEN THE CBC PIPELINE AS OPPOSED TO THE CWB PIPELINE LOOKS FOR A GRAVITATIONAL WAVE IT LOOKS FOR CLOSE SIMILARITY TO ONE OF THE 250 000 POSSIBLE MODELS IN ITS TEMPLATE BANK THE TEMPLATE BANK DIVIDES THE INDEFINITE WORLD OF POTENTIAL INTO DETECTABLE ACTUALITY HERE IS THAT FIRST EMAIL WHICH COMES FROM MARCO DRAGO MON SEPT 14 2015 11 56 ALL TIMES ARE BRITISH SUMMER TIME UNTIL OCTOBER 25 WHEN THEY MOVE TO GREENWICH MEAN TIME HI ALL CWB HAS PUT ON GRACEDB A VERY INTERESTING EVENT IN THE LAST HOUR HTTPS GRACEDB LIGO ORG EVENTS VIEW G184098 THIS IS THE CED HTTPS LDAS JOBS LIGO CALTECH EDU WAVEBURST ONLINE ER8 LH ONLINE JOBS 112625 1126259540 1126259600 OUTPUT CED CED 1126259420 180 1126259540 1126259600 SLAG0 LAG0 1 JOB1 L1H1 1126259461 750 1126259461 750 QSCAN MADE BY ANDY HTTPS LDAS JOBS LIGO CALTECH EDU LUNDGREN WDQ L1 1126259462 3910 HTTPS LDAS JOBS LIGO CALTECH EDU LUNDGREN WDQ H1 1126259462 3910 2 MAXWELLS EQNS AND ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES GRACEDB BY THE WAY IS THE GRAVITATIONAL WAVE CANDIDATE DATABASE IT IS THE WEB PAGE THAT SHOWS EVENTS OF POTENTIAL INTEREST AND IT MOSTLY LOGS THINGS AUTOMATICALLY SO LONG AS IT IS TRIGGERED BY THE EVENTS EXTRACTED FROM THE PIPELINES THAT SURPASS A CERTAIN THRESHOLD BUT IT LOGS A LOT OF EVENTS NONE OF WHICH HAS EVER TURNED OUT TO BE A GENUINE GRAVITATIONAL WAVE TO BE READING THESE EMAILS YOU NEED TO BE PART OF A SELECT GROUP AND TO ACCESS THE URLS YOU NEED A PASSWORD WHICH AS FAR AS I KNOW OUTSIDE OF THE SCIENTISTS ONLY I POSSESS THE SELECT GROUP IS KNOWN AS THE LIGO VIRGO COLLABORATION OR LVC IT IS THE GROUP BASED AROUND THE LASER INTERFEROMETER GRAVITATIONAL WAVE OBSERVATORY LIGO AND VIRGO LIGO HAS TWO FOUR KILOMETER INTERFEROMETERS IN THE UNITED STATES WHILE VIRGO IS A FRENCH ITALIAN COLLABORATION WITH ONE THREE KILOMETER INTERFER OMETER NEAR PISA WHICH WAS NOT ONLINE AT THE TIME OF THE PUTATIVE SIGNAL BUT THERE ARE 1 000 OR MORE SCIENTISTS INVOLVED LOCATED ALL OVER THE WORLD 1 I LOOK AT THE WEBSITES AND SEE CERTAIN TRACES THAT APPEAR TO BE LARGE AND 1 ACTUALLY ABOUT 1 250 BUT I LL USE THE ROUND FIGURE OF 1 000 THROUGHOUT THE TEXT THE LIGO VIRGO COLLABORATION CONTAINS WITHIN ITSELF ELEMENTS OF COMPETITION VIRGO WAS ORIGINALLY AN ENTIRELY INDEPENDENT OPERATION INTENDED TO COMPETE WITH THE US EFFORT BUT IT HAS BEEN LESS WELL FUNDED AND AS A MULTICOUNTRY CONSORTIUM INITIALLY ITALY AND FRANCE HAS MORE ORGANIZATIONAL DIFFICULTIES TO OVERCOME PERHAPS AS A RESULT OF THESE PROBLEMS ITS INTERFEROMETER HAS ALWAYS LAGGED BEHIND LIGO IN TERMS OF SENSITIVITY AND VIRGO SCIENTISTS WILL BE VERY DISAPPOINTED THAT THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE FIRST DETECTION OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES THE BRITISH GERMAN GEO600 WAS ALSO FIRST CONCEIVED AS A COMPETI TIVE INSTRUMENT BUT IT WAS RELATIVELY STARVED OF FUNDS AND IT SOON BECAME CLEAR THAT ITS MOST IMPORTANT ROLE WOULD BE TO CONTRIBUTE TECHNICALLY TO LIGO WHICH IT HAS DONE VERY SUC CESSFULLY THAT SAID THE SCIENTISTS FROM ALL GROUPS HAVE WORKED AS A SEAMLESS AND PRETTY WELL FRICTIONLESS TEAM WHEN IT COMES TO ANALYZING THE MEANING OF THE SIGNAL DETECTED BY LIGO AND WRITING UP THE RESULTS SO THEY ARE A FAIRLY SOLIDARISTIC GROUP WHEN IT COMES TO HANDLING AND PRESENTING THE DATA WITH SOME RESIDUAL RIVALRY BETWEEN LIGO AND VIRGO THAT SEEMED TO SHOW ITSELF OCCASIONALLY IN THE BIG DOG INCIDENT SEE CHAPTER 2 BUT IS NOWHERE IN EVI DENCE IN RESPECT OF THE EVENT WHEN IT COMES TO BUILDING APPARATUS THEY ARE MUCH MORE INDEPENDENT AND COMPETITIVE IT IS NOT FLAG AS AN HARDWARE INJECTION AS WE UNDERSTAND AFTER SOME FAST INVESTIGATION SOMEONE CAN CONFIRM THAT IS NOT AN HARDWARE INJECTION 3 MAXWELLS EQNS AND ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES APPEAR TO COINCIDE IN TIME ON THE TWO GREAT INTERFEROMETRIC DETECTORS L1 AND H1 LOCATED 2 000 MILES APART IN LOUISIANA AND WASHINGTON STATE L1 THEREFORE BEING SOUTHEAST OF H1 BUT I M NOT THAT EXCITED BECAUSE STUFF LIKE THIS COMES UP ALL THE TIME THE DETECTORS ARE SO SENSITIVE THAT THEY ARE ALWAYS JIGGLING ABOUT AND CREATING FALSE ALARMS WE VE BEEN WAITING FIFTY YEARS TO SEE A GRAVITATIONAL WAVE AND IT IS PRETTY UNLIKELY THAT THIS IS IT THE NEXT EMAIL WHICH COMES TWENTY MINUTES LATER THOUGH IT AGAIN DOES NOT GET ME VERY EXCITED AT LEAST MAKES ME THINK I PROBABLY WILL SAVE THIS STRING OF EMAILS IN ITS OWN FOLDER THIS EMAIL SAYS THIS IS A NICE INSPIRAL WITH MCHIRP 27 MO THE IMPLICATION IS THAT THE ANALYSIS OF THE SHAPE OF THE WAVEFORM ITS RELATIVELY LOW FREQUENCY AND RINGDOWN PROFILE INDI CATES THAT COMBINED OBJECTS WITH A TOTAL MASS OF CONSIDERABLY MORE THAN 27 OF OUR SUNS HAVE BEEN INVOLVED THIS MEANS THAT AT LEAST ONE OF THEM AND PROBABLY BOTH MUST BE A BLACK HOLE SINCE THE LARGEST POSSIBLE MASS FOR A COMPACT STAR OTHER THAN A BLACK HOLE IS AROUND 2 5 THAT OF OUR SUN STARS CAN BE BIGGER IF THEY ARE STILL BURNING FUEL TO FIGHT THE PULL OF GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE IF THEY ARE BOTH GOOD SIZED BLACK HOLES THEN THE THEORY SAYS THAT A LOT OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVE ENERGY WILL BE EMITTED WHEN THEY MERGE AND THIS MAKES IT MORE PLAUSIBLE THAT THIS COULD BE A REAL DETECTION TWO MINUTES LATER I RECEIVE ACCORDING TO THE LLO INJECTION LOGS THE LAST SUCCESSFUL INJECTION ATTEMPT WAS 1125400499 SEP 04 2015 11 14 42 UTC I LOOKED AT THE LLO INJECTION SCHEDULE AROUND THE TIME LISTED IN ANDY S Q SCAN 1126259462 HERE ARE THE NEAREST SCHEDULED BURST INJECTIONS 1126240499 2 1 0 HWINJ 1126240499 2 1126270499 2 1 0 HWINJ 1126270499 2 BOTH ARE 3 HOURS AWAY WHAT THIS IS TELLING US IS THAT NO ONE HAD OFFICIALLY AND DELIBERATELY INJECTED FALSE SIGNALS INTO THE DETECTORS WITHIN THREE HOURS OF THE EVENT AT LEAST IT SHOWS THEY HAD NOT DONE THIS IN A WAY THAT WAS VISIBLE TO THE SCIENTISTS 4 MAXWELLS EQNS AND ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES