Gravitational Waves: Sources, Linearized Theory and Detection Techniques
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69996/ijari.2026008Keywords:
Gravitational waves, LIGO, VIRGO, GEO600, TAMAAbstract
Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of space-time that propagate at the speed of light in a vacuum and represent a major prediction of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. The weak interaction of gravitational waves with matter allows them to propagate virtually unscattered, making them important tools for studying astrophysical phenomena that are difficult to observe through electromagnetic radiation. However, this same property also makes them extremely difficult to detect because the amplitudes reaching Earth are extremely small. This study investigates theoretical aspects of gravitational wave data analysis, focusing on the detection of signals from inspiraling compact binaries and rigidly rotating non-axisymmetric pulsars. The study discusses gravitational waves in the linearized theory, astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, stochastic backgrounds, and gravitational wave detectors including resonant mass detectors and laser interferometric detectors. Laser interferometric detectors such as LIGO, VIRGO, GEO600, and TAMA are designed to achieve extremely high sensitivity levels in strain measurements. Advanced detectors aim to measure strains as small as ~10⁻²², requiring mitigation of thermal vibrations, seismic activity, and gravity gradients. The study also highlights burst, continuous, and stochastic sources of gravitational waves, including supernovae, compact binary inspirals, coalescing binaries, rapidly rotating neutron stars, and primordial stochastic backgrounds.
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