Will an Israeli facility be built to detect gravitational waves?

At the Spacestack conference that will be held on May 22 at the Tel Aviv Expo, an initiative to establish an Israeli LIGO association (consortium) in regional cooperation will be announced

 

מאת: פרופסור אסף פאר מאוניברסיטת בר אילן, ד"ר לביא סיגמן וליאור הרמן מקרן TYPE5 VC

In February 2016, scientists at the Gravitational Wave Observatory in the United States made history by using LIGO interferometer  when the first discovery of gravitational waves was announced. Gravitational waves are unlike any other signal that has ever been received. While all other signals are either photons (of different wavelengths) or particles (cosmic rays or neutrinos), gravitational waves have a completely different essence. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, the universe is not "hard" (similar to a board on which things are drawn) but flexible - similar to a rubber sheet, which can be stretched and contracted. Gravitational waves are tiny ripples in the fabric of the universe, caused by the acceleration of massive bodies, such as black hole mergers or neutron stars. They were first predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity more than a century ago, but it took about a century for the technology to detect those tiny ripples to mature.

The LIGO facilities Located in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana. A modern version of the Michelson interferometer was built at each of the sites. Each such interferometer consists of two concrete tubes connected at the base point and forming the shape of the letter L. The length of each tube is 4 km. Inside the tubes, two powerful laser beams pass through a series of mirrors. These are used to measure the difference in lengths between the two arms with extreme precision. When the gravitational waves pass through the detectors, they distort the space and cause the length of the tubes to change at very tiny distances (that is, at the subatomic level). However, the combination of the laser with the sophisticated optical system makes it possible to distinguish even the smallest changes in length - from an order of magnitude of 1 to 10 to the power of 22 (equal to measuring the distance from Tel Aviv to Istanbul with the precision of the size of a single proton). The discovery of gravitational waves earned the project's leaders, Professors Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017.

Using unique technologies to detect gravitational waves may open a window to look into the history of the universe, observing events such as the Big Bang, and will provide a breakthrough ability to examine neutron stars, the formation of the early universe, black holes and more. This is in a way that will constitute a scientific leap, and will create groundbreaking technological developments, with practical uses in the civilian and military industries.  

לאור הצלחת הפרוייקט, ארה"ב מפתחת כיום פרויקט שאפתני אף יותר בשם החוקר הקוסמי ("Cosmic Explorer") המתוכנן להיות גדול יותר במידות הבסיס, כ-20/40 ק"מ (גדול יותר פי עשרה מהגלאי הנוכחי), ורגיש יותר מהמצפה הנוכחי. בנוסף, סוכנות החלל נאס"א עובדת על פרוייקט שאפתני עוד הרבה יותר – מערכת בשם ליסה (   ] Laser Interferometry Space Antenna]- NASA,LISA) "אנטנת חלל" מבוססת לווינים הנושאים אינטרפרומטר-לייזר. LISA יהיה גלאי גלי הכבידה הייעודי הראשון מבוסס-חלל.

Integrated Global Positioning for Gravitational Wave Monitoring

In recent years, a number of countries, including Italy, Japan and India, have built or intend to build additional gravity detectors that will work as part of the partnership that is today international, and includes scientists from a large number of countries. The main advantage of an extensive deployment of detectors around the globe is the ability to more precisely locate the source of the visible gravitational waves, thus quickly directing telescopes to the correct point in the sky so as to enable a rapid study of the phenomenon that led to the creation of the gravitational waves.

לItaly has an active gravitational wave observatory called VIRGO, whose planning began in the early 90s, and was first activated in 2003. After years of improvements, as of 2017 it is integrated with the American LIGO detector. Together they increase both the sensitivity and above all the accuracy of the location of the source of gravity waves. The Virgo interferometer is designed to detect gravitational waves and is located in Santo Stefano a Macrata, near the city of Pisa, Italy. The two arms of the device, three kilometers long, host its mirrors and instruments inside high vacuum tubes.

VIRGO is managed by the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), a consortium founded by the French CNRS and the Italian INFN. The Virgo Collaboration operates the detector and consists of more than 700 members, representing 129 institutions in 16 different countries. The interferometer is named after the star cluster VIRGO, which contains about 1,500 galaxies in the constellation about 50 million light years from Earth. 

The collaboration with VIRGO is also part of the larger LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration, which reunites scientists from the other Large Gravitational Wave Experiments, with the aim of carrying out a joint analysis of the data that is essential for the detection of gravitational waves.

מעבר לארה"ב ואיטליה, גם יפן בנתה בשנים האחרונות מצפה גלי כבידה. המצפה היפני הוא הראשון בעולם שהוא כולו תת קרקעי, ומשתמש בטכנולוגית קרור חדשניות למראות.  Japan's KAGRA Gravitational Wave Observatory Goes into operation in 2021, in the meantime it operates with lower sensitivity. However, after the improvement of the sensitivity of the Gravitational Wave Observatory in Japan planned for the near future, it will become the detector with the highest sensitivity, and enable the establishment of an even stronger detection network. 

Earlier this year, the Indian government approved a budget of 320 million dollars to build another gravitational wave detector on Indian soil. The detector should be ready in 2030, and join the international network of detectors. The work towards the detector, which began about a decade ago, coordinates and directs the activities of about ten research institutes and universities all over India. India hosted postdocs from around the world, and sent students and researchers from India to LIGO laboratories and LVK institutions around the world for further training in technology and the relevant science fields.

קיומם של מצפים מרובים המופרדים על ידי מרחקים עצומים ברחבי העולם לא רק מאפשר מידה רבה יותר של אימות התגליות, אלא גם מסייע לדייק באיתור האיזור בחלל ממנו מגיע האות (בדומה לאיכון GPS אשר מתבצע ע"י מספר קואורדינטות).

The Israeli angle 

In Israel there is one research group fully affiliated with LVK, in the physics department at Bar Ilan University. The group deals with the analysis of sources and processing of data from the detectors, especially their use for the study of general relativity, black holes, and neutron stars. Additional groups working on LIGO physics and data also exist at the Weizmann Institute, the Hebrew University, the Technion, and Ben Gurion University. 

The activity is expected to expand significantly with the start of the fourth observation run (O4) of the detectors starting at the end of May, for about a year and a half of data collection, and a similar period until the information is processed and extracted. A significant leap forward in the scope and nature of the involvement - theoretical and technological - will be possible if another detector is developed.

LIGO – Gravitational waves light up the universe | A national opportunity

The LIGO facilities and the associated technological research and development are expected to affect a variety of existing technologies and developments. Unique technological developments are expected to be produced from LIGO facilities, such as next-generation chip developments - light-based optical chips, signal analysis using AI, development of molecular resolution, advanced medical scanning, and quantum-based drive systems. 

Establishment of the Israel LIGO Institute

The Israeli LIGO project in cooperation with the Emirates is planned to be launched during 2024 in the first phase as a scientific center for the development and commercialization of technologies when, in coordination with government, academic and research bodies, the establishment of the measurement institute in an above-ground or underground configuration (similar to the design of the European institute) will be examined due to land limitations in Israel.

LIGO - ISRAEL is planned as a scientific consortium in which the best universities in Israel, research institutes and technology companies will take part. The project is an extraordinary opportunity, not only in the field of foreign relations and Israel's integration in the region, but first and foremost in the scientific-technological field. 

לפרויקט זה חשיבות לאומית, מדעית וטכנולוגית למדינת ישראל. השלכותיו בהיבטים אלה אינן מתמצות רק בהיבטי יזמות טכנולוגית, מדע, אקדמיה ומו"פ בתחום האזרחי אלא גם בהיבטים צבאיים ואסטרטגיים. 

It is expected that in the next decade the progress in the fields of materials science, photonic and quantum computing systems, will accelerate the process of miniaturization of detector technologies and at the same time will make it possible to apply the sensing and processing capabilities in the cloud computing market, edge computing (EDGE COMPUTING) as well as in the renewable energy industry and more.

The modern interferometer systems are the result of advances in the physical study of photon behavior, quantum interweaving with advanced detector technology. 

The study of black holes is just one example of a scientific development that is accelerating research and development in the field of optical measurement and sensing devices. The security development and commercialization capabilities also clarify the importance of the deep-tech economy (an economy made up of companies that develop systems that are at the seam between basic and applied science, as any such technology has a great chance of disrupting large markets) for Israel and the development of projects such as LIGO in international and Israeli cooperation.

וועידת ספייסטק השנייה שתתקיים ב-22 במאי במרכז הכנסים אקספו ת"א תתמקד בבניית כלכלת החלל, המוערכת בטריליון דולר, ובספייס ניישן בתור קטר צמיחה לכדור הארץ. 

כתבה זו היא תוכן מקודם עבור גולשי אתר הידען. המאמר נכתב בשיתוף פרופסור אסף פאר מהמחלקה לפיסיקה באוניברסיטת בר אילן, בשיתוף ד"ר לביא סיגמן המכהן כמנהל, דירקטור ויועץ במספר חברות וארגונים בתחום ננו-חומרים, קלינטק, ביוטכנולוגיה ואגריטק, ובשיתוף ליאור הרמן, שותף ומייסד קרן הון הסיכון  TYPE5 VC המתמחה בטכנולוגיות חלל.

The event will be moderated by N12 technology reporter Dror Gloverman. The lectures are intended for researchers, developers, entrepreneurs, private investors, venture capital funds, managers and marketing, technology and science professionals. 

A special discount for the surfers of the knowledge site - enter the discount code spacevip75. the number of seats is limited. To order tickets on the Space Conference 2023 website:  https://spacetechsummit.info