Natural Science Forum / Physics / Relativity / December 2005

"Will the LIGO Experiment Work?"

    An ambitious experiment to detect gravitational waves from
distant astronomical sources is currently in preparation (Laser
Interferometric
Gravitational Observatory - LIGO). A typical source for such waves would be
two
stars circling each other in close proximity. It is proposed to detect these
waves by means of a two axis laser array to measure the relativistic effects
of
the waves as they pass by. It is postulated that these waves will cause the
distance between the ends of the array, as sensed by Laser inteferometry, to
be
moved by the "distortion of space" as they pass the Earth. It is expected
that
this movement will be detectible by an interference pattern observable in
Laser
signals sent between the ends of the arrays. Calculations have shown that
the
gravitational wave produced by a massive star in close orbit about another
should contain enough energy to be readily detectible by this method. What
does
not seem to be mentioned is the fact that LIGO is only capable of detecting
longitudinal waves. In addition in none of these reports does mention seem
to
have been made of the fact that such waves must always be generated as
multiple
waves which cancel completely for longitudinal waves and cancel in the far
field
for transverse waves. Considering the distances involved and the size of the
LIGO array, all such observations will be made as distant far field
observations.

    The generation of multiple waves (e.g.- two for a binary
system) results from the fact that, as is the case with a single
gravitational
object, the center of gravity of a gravitationally coupled multiple object
must
remain stationary as its component parts move with respect to each other. As
a
result, the gravitational wave (as seen at an "infinite distance") from one
of
the objects in a binary system will be equal in amplitude and opposite in
phase
to the gravitational wave from the other. The net gravitational radiation
from
the pair will consist of both longitudinal and transverse waves which are
equal
in amplitude. The longitudinal waves will be opposite in phase and shoud
therefore cancel completely. The transverse waves will have a very small
phase
angle between them equal to the radius of the orbit(so) involved divided by
the
distance to the source.

    The transverse waves are only observable if the two objects
can be resolved as separate objects (near field radiation). If they cannot
be so
resolved (far field radiation) by the gravitational wave detector, they will
be
impossible to detect because the detector will experience only the static
field
from their common center of gravity. The cyclical field which for which
detection was hoped for will cancel. A further complication in the detection
of
the transverse wave is the fact that they will not produce a 'stretching" of
the
local horizontal, they will produce a "tilting" of the local vertical. The
LIGO
array should not capable of detecting the effect even if it has sufficinet
amplitude.

    The longitudinal waves emanating from the center of gravity of
the emitting system always produce far field radiation which cancels
completely.
An additional complication results from the fact that any residual component
of
the gravitational radiation is attenuated not only by the expected inverse
square law, it suffers an additional attenuation in proportion to the cube
of
distance rather than the square of distance do the transverse waves. It
would
seem reasonable to assert that there are no longitudinal waves for LIGO to
detect.

    Gravitational waves certainly do exist, we live on a world
with an enormous gravity wave detector, the oceans. The tides in the ocean
are
produced by the Moon's gravitational field. The time of high tide advances
about
an hour a day. This advancement can be considered to be the output of a
gravity
wave detector, but, that gravity wave would be undetectable at
interplanetary
distances because the gravitational waves from the Earth and the Moon would
cancel each other virtually completely! The writer has received arguments
that
the fact that binary stellar systems are observed to lose energy over time
due
to radiation of gravitational energy to the Universe shows that the
limitation
described does not occur and that gravitational waves will therefore be
detectible. Such an argument is faulty. The radiating objects are embedded
in
the Universe and, as a result, all of the radiated gravitational energy is
absorbed as "near field" radiation. It is only the shrimpy detectors that
man is
capable of building which will have difficulty in detecting transverse
gravitational waves. (In addition to the expected attenuation in wave
strength
imposed by the inverse square law, the energy received by the far field
detector
represented by the LIGO array will be reduced in proportional to the square
of
the ratio of the orbital radius of the sources divided by the distance to
the
sourced. Rotsa Ruck Fellows!

    The source material for this posting may be found in
http://einsteinhoax.com/hoax.htm ("The Einstein Hoax" {1997});
http://einsteinhoax.com/gravity.htm; ("Gravity" {1987}); and
http://einsteinhoax.com/relcor.htm ("Corrections to Special Relativity"
{1997}). EVERYTHING WHICH WE ACCEPT AS TRUE MUST BE CONSISTENT WITH
EVERYTHING ELSE WE HAVE ACCEPTED AS TRUE, IT MUST BE CONSISTENT WITH ALL
OBSERVATIONS, AND IT MUST BE MATHEMATICALLY VIABLE. PRESENT TEACHINGS DO NOT
ALWAYS MEET THIS REQUIREMENT. THE WORLD IS ENTITLED TO A HIGHER STANDARD OF
WORKMANSHIP FROM THOSE IT HAS GRANTED WORLD CLASS STATUS.

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