Ligo Scientific Collaboration

LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Formation	1997
Headquarters	California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
Membership	1200 scientists
LSC Spokesperson	Patrick Brady
Executive Director of LIGO	David Reitze
Award(s)	Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2016); Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2016); Enrico Fermi Prize (2016); Bruno Rossi Prize (2017); Albert Einstein Medal (2017); Princess of Asturias Award (2017);
Website	www.ligo.org

Short description: International physics organization

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) is a scientific collaboration of international physics institutes and research groups dedicated to the search for gravitational waves.

History

The LSC was established in 1997, under the leadership of Barry Barish.^[3] Its mission is to ensure equal scientific opportunity for individual participants and institutions by organizing research, publications, and all other scientific activities, and it includes scientists from both LIGO Laboratory and collaborating institutions. Barish appointed Rainer Weiss as the first spokesperson.

LSC members have access to the US-based Advanced LIGO detectors in Hanford, Washington and in Livingston, Louisiana, as well as the GEO 600 detector in Sarstedt, Germany. Under an agreement with the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), LSC members also have access to data from the Virgo detector in Pisa, Italy. While the LSC and the Virgo Collaboration are separate organizations, they cooperate closely and are referred to collectively as "LVC".^[4] The KAGRA observatory's collaboration has joined the LIGO-Virgo collective, and the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collective is called "LVK".

The current LSC Spokesperson is Patrick Brady of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.^[5] The Executive Director of the LIGO Laboratory is David Reitze from the University of Florida.

On 11 February 2016, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations^{[lower-alpha 1]} announced that they succeeded in making the first direct gravitational wave observation on 14 September 2015.^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

In 2016, Barish received the Enrico Fermi Prize "for his fundamental contributions to the formation of the LIGO and LIGO-Virgo scientific collaborations and for his role in addressing challenging technological and scientific aspects whose solution led to the first detection of gravitational waves".^[10]

Collaboration members

Membership of LIGO Scientific Collaboration as of November 2015 is detailed in the table below.^[2]

Institution	Country	Members	Website
Abilene Christian University	United States	2
Albert-Einstein-Institute, Hannover	Germany	79	Binary Merger Observations and Numerical Relativity, Laser Interferometry and Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Albert-Einstein-Institute, Potsdam-Golm	Germany	21	Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity
American University	United States	4
Andrews University	United States	6	Andrew University LIGO
Australian National University	Australia	16	Centre for Gravitational Physics
California Institute of Technology	United States	93	LIGO Lab, Caltech LIGO Astrophysics
California State University, Fullerton	United States	15	Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy Center
Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics	Canada	4	Gravitational waves
Cardiff University	United Kingdom	28	Gravity Exploration Institute
Carleton College	United States	8
Charles Sturt University	Australia	1
Chennai Mathematical Institute	India	1
College of William & Mary	United States	3
Columbia University	United States	8
Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University	United States	8
Eötvös Loránd University	Hungary	9	Eötvös Gravity Research Group
Georgia Institute of Technology	United States	20	Center for Relativistic Astrophysics
Goddard Space Flight Center	United States	5
Hanford Observatory	United States	38	LIGO Hanford
Hanyang University	South Korea	1
Hobart and William Smith Colleges	United States	4
IAP, Nizhny Novgorod	Russia	8
ICTP-SAIFR	Brazil	1
ICTS-TIFR	India	9
IISER-KOL	India	3
IISER-TVM	India	5
Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar	India	3
IndIGO	India	59	LIGO India
INPE	Brazil	6
IPR-Bhat	India	10
IUCAA	India	14
Kenyon College	United States	9
King's College London	United Kingdom	1
Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information	South Korea	4
Leibniz University Hannover	Germany	8
Livingston Observatory	United States	35	LIGO Livingston
Louisiana State University	United States	16	Experimental & Theoretical General Relativity
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	United States	35	MIT LIGO
Monash University	Australia	9
Montana State University	United States	3	Gravitational Physics at MSU
Montclair State University	United States	3
Moscow State University	Russia	11
National Institute of Mathematical Sciences	South Korea	4
National Tsing Hua University	Taiwan	3
Northwestern University	United States	16	LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Penn State University	United States	7	Penn State LIGO group Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos
Pusan National University	South Korea	3
Rochester Institute of Technology	United States	13	Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation
RRCAT, Indore	India	9
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory	United Kingdom	2	STFC Advanced LIGO
Seoul National University	South Korea	1
Sonoma State University	United States	5
Southern University	United States	1
Stanford University	United States	18
Swinburne University of Technology	Australia	12	ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery
Syracuse University	United States	31	Syracuse University Gravitational Wave Group
Texas Tech University	United States	8
The Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	12
The University of Melbourne	Australia	3
The University of Sheffield	United Kingdom	5
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research	India	5
Trinity University	United States	2
Tsinghua University	China	5
University of Alabama in Huntsville	United States	2
University of Adelaide	Australia	4	Optics and Photonics Group
University of Birmingham	United Kingdom	29	Gravitational Wave Group
University of Brussels	Belgium	4	Precision Mechatronics Laboratory
University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	6	Gravitational waves
University of Chicago	United States	4
University of Florida	United States	26	LIGO at the University of Florida
University of Glasgow	United Kingdom	61	Institute for Gravitational Research
University of Hamburg	Germany	6
University of Maryland	United States	7	Gravitation Experiment Group
University of Michigan	United States	10	Michigan Gravitational Wave Group
University of Minnesota	United States	5	LIGO at Minnesota
University of Mississippi	United States	10	The LIGO Team at The University of Mississippi
University of Oregon	United States	10
University of Sannio	Italy	10
University of Santiago de Compostela	Spain	6
University of Southampton	United Kingdom	2
University of Strathclyde	United Kingdom	3
University of Szeged	Hungary	3
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley	United States	22	Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy
University of Tokyo	Japan	6	Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, Gravitational Wave Group
University of the Balearic Islands	Spain	9	Relativity and Gravitation Group
University of Washington	United States	2
University of the West of Scotland	United Kingdom	4
University of Western Australia	Australia	21
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee	United States	27	LIGO Scientific Collaboration Research Group
USC Information Sciences Institute	United States	3
Washington State University	United States	3
West Virginia University	United States	4
Whitman College	United States	3

Notes

↑ The 11 February 2016 announcement team were Kip Thorne, David Reitze, Gabriela González, and Rainer Weiss.

References

↑ "About the LSC". LIGO Scientific Collaboration. http://www.ligo.org/about.php.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 "LSC/Virgo Census". myLIGO. https://my.ligo.org/census.php.
↑ Committee on Setting Priorities for NSF-Sponsored Large Research Facility Projects, Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, Policy and Global Affairs, Board on Physics and Astronomy, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, National Research Council. (2004). Setting Priorities for Large Research Facility Projects Supported by the National Science Foundation. National Academies Press. pp. 129–136.
↑ "Open call for partnership for the EM identification and follow-up of GW candidate events". 2015-12-06. https://dcc.ligo.org/public/0110/M1300550/011/LVC_MOUcallAndSummary.pdf.
↑ "UW-Milwaukee astrophysicist elected spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration | Newswise: News for Journalists". https://www.newswise.com/articles/uw-milwaukee-astrophysicist-elected-spokesperson-of-the-ligo-scientific-collaboration.
↑ Twilley, Nicola. "Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/gravitational-waves-exist-heres-how-scientists-finally-found-them.
↑ Abbott, B.P. (2016). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 (6): 061102. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. PMID 26918975. Bibcode: 2016PhRvL.116f1102A.
↑ Naeye, Robert (11 February 2016). "Gravitational Wave Detection Heralds New Era of Science". Sky and Telescope. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/gravitational-wave-detection-heralds-new-era-of-science-0211201644/.
↑ Castelvecchi, Davide; Witze, Alexandra (11 February 2016). "Einstein's gravitational waves found at last". Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19361. http://www.nature.com/news/einstein-s-gravitational-waves-found-at-last-1.19361. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
↑ "2016 Enrico Fermi Prize". Società Italiana di Fisica. http://www.primapagina.sif.it/article/466/il-premio-fermi-2016-alle-onde-gravitazionali.

External links

LIGO Magazine

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Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Read more

[6] The 11 February 2016 announcement team were Kip Thorne, David Reitze, Gabriela González, and Rainer Weiss.

[1] "About the LSC". LIGO Scientific Collaboration. http://www.ligo.org/about.php.

[Census-2] 2.0 ^2.1 "LSC/Virgo Census". myLIGO. https://my.ligo.org/census.php.

[3] Committee on Setting Priorities for NSF-Sponsored Large Research Facility Projects, Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, Policy and Global Affairs, Board on Physics and Astronomy, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, National Research Council. (2004). Setting Priorities for Large Research Facility Projects Supported by the National Science Foundation. National Academies Press. pp. 129–136.

[4] "Open call for partnership for the EM identification and follow-up of GW candidate events". 2015-12-06. https://dcc.ligo.org/public/0110/M1300550/011/LVC_MOUcallAndSummary.pdf.

[5] "UW-Milwaukee astrophysicist elected spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration | Newswise: News for Journalists". https://www.newswise.com/articles/uw-milwaukee-astrophysicist-elected-spokesperson-of-the-ligo-scientific-collaboration.

[7] Twilley, Nicola. "Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/gravitational-waves-exist-heres-how-scientists-finally-found-them.

[PRL-20160211-8] Abbott, B.P. (2016). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 (6): 061102. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. PMID 26918975. Bibcode: 2016PhRvL.116f1102A.

[Naeye-9] Naeye, Robert (11 February 2016). "Gravitational Wave Detection Heralds New Era of Science". Sky and Telescope. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/gravitational-wave-detection-heralds-new-era-of-science-0211201644/.

[Nature_11Feb16-10] Castelvecchi, Davide; Witze, Alexandra (11 February 2016). "Einstein's gravitational waves found at last". Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19361. http://www.nature.com/news/einstein-s-gravitational-waves-found-at-last-1.19361. Retrieved 11 February 2016.

[11] "2016 Enrico Fermi Prize". Società Italiana di Fisica. http://www.primapagina.sif.it/article/466/il-premio-fermi-2016-alle-onde-gravitazionali.


Formation	1997^[1]
Headquarters	California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
Membership	1200 scientists^[2]
LSC Spokesperson	Patrick Brady
Executive Director of LIGO	David Reitze
Award(s)	Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2016) Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2016) Enrico Fermi Prize (2016) Bruno Rossi Prize (2017) Albert Einstein Medal (2017) Princess of Asturias Award (2017)
Website	www.ligo.org