of 2
Amaldi
Meeting Introduction
Barry
C.
Barish
California
Institute
of
Technology
Pasadena,
CA
91125
Welcome
to
Caltech
and the 3
rd
Edoardo Amaldi Conference
on
Gravitational Waves.
Obviously, something must
be
very interesting
to
bring more than
250
scientists
from
around
the
world
to
Pasadena
in
July
for
this particular meeting.
In
fact,
July
in
Southern
California
does have
many
attractions,
in
addition
to the
good weather
and
cool nights.
For
this conference,
we
have arranged
a
visit
to the new
Getty Museum
on
our
excursion day. This
is
meant
to
make your stay more pleasant,
but is not the
real
reason
we
have gathered here. This meeting addresses
the
detection
of
gravitational
waves,
a
much-anticipated event.
Einstein predicted Gravitational Waves
in
1916,
as a
result
of his
theory
of
gravity.
This
new
description, involving curved space-time, solved
the
fundamental
problem
in
Newtonian gravity
of
instantaneous action
at a
distance. Other
effects
of
general
relativity have been observed, including
the
recent advances
in
gravitational lensing
that
are
becoming
so
important
in
astrophysics. Gravitational waves, themselves, have
been indirectly observed
in the
beautiful
experiment
of
Hulse
and
Taylor,
by
measuring
the
gradual speed
up of the
period
of the
binary neutron star system
PS
1913+16,
and
showing that
it
precisely agrees with
the
effect
predicted
from
the
radiation
of
gravitational waves.
The
experimental challenge
of
detecting gravitational waves
has
been with
us
since
Einstein introduced
the
concept. Unfortunately,
the
effects
due to
gravitational waves
are so
small that
a
self-contained laboratory experiment appears unfeasible.
Instead,
the
present attempts
are to
detect gravitational waves resulting
from
some astrophysical
or
cosmological
effect.
Possible sources include supernovae,
binary
inspiral
of
compact objects like neutron stars
or
black holes, spinning neutron
stars,
or
even
gravitational waves that were emitted
in the
first
instants
of the
early Universe.
Sensitive techniques have been developed over
the
past three decades,
first
using
resonant bars
and
more recently, suspended mass interferometers. Vigorous research
has
been done
to
develop
these
techniques
and
large ambitious experiments
are now
being implemented. With
the
world-wide
effort
and the
very large interferometers
being developed
the
community
has
grown
and
there
is a
growing need
for
this
CP523,
Gravitational
Waves:
Third
Edoardo
Amaldi
Conference,
edited
by S.
Meshkov
©
2000 American
Institute
of
Physics 1-56396-944-0/007$ 17.00
Downloaded 02 Oct 2007 to 131.215.225.176. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://proceedings.aip.org/proceedings/cpcr.jsp
emerging
field
to
organize
itself
for
collaboration,
exchange
of
information
and to
represent
the
field.
For
these
reasons,
the
gravitational
wave
community
organized
itself
a
couple
years
ago
forming
the
Gravitational
Wave
International
Committee
(GWIC,
for
short)
in
order
to
help
foster
the
international
aspects
of
this
emerging
field.
One of the
first
tasks
was to
create
a
conference
specifically
for
this
field.
Rather
than
create
a new
conference,
GWIC
decided
to
'evolve'
a
successful
existing
topical
workshop,
the
Amaldi
meeting
that
had
been
held
twice,
once
at
Frascati,
Italy
and
then
at
CERN
in
Switzerland.
GWIC
has
become
an
important
committee
for the
field
of
gravitational
waves.
It has
representatives
from
all
major
projects
in the
world
-
resonant
bars,
interferometers
and
also
the
space
based
initiative.
The
committee
is
developing
a
formal
tie
with
IUPAP
(the
International
Union
of
Physics
and
Applied
Physics),
which
is the
highest
body
of
scientists
representing
international
community.
The
relationship
is
through
an
Associated
Commission
- AC2
that
covers
general
relativity;
as
well
as
being
linked
to
PaNAGIC,
a
newly
formed
committee
in
IUPAP
to
represent
particle
astrophysics
and
related
fields.
We
expect
to
seek
IUPAP
sponsorship
of the
next
Amaldi
meeting,
which
will
be in
Perth,
Australia
in
2001.
This
Amaldi
meeting
at
Caltech
represents
the
first
in the
series
under
the
auspices
of
GWIC
and has
been
organized
as a
true
international
conference.
To
accomplish
that,
we
have
followed
IUPAP
guidelines
for
international
conferences
in
terms
of
distribution
of
delegates,
speakers,
etc.
The
program
of the
meeting
covers
astrophysics
sources,
resonant
bar
detectors
(coincidences),
suspended
mass
interferometers
(new
generation
becoming
operational
over
the
next
few
years),
and
space
based
experiments
(LISA)
(which
hopefully
will
become
a
reality
over
the
coming
decade).
It
covers
technical
details,
as
well
as
data
analysis
approaches
and
techniques.
Syd
Meshkov
has put the
conference
together
very
capably
with
advice
from
an
international
organizing
committee.
Lastly,
I
would
like
to
comment
that
GWIC
has
kept
the
title
Eduardo
Amaldi
Conference
in
tribute
to the
fact
that
Eduardo
Amaldi
was
such
an
important
figure
in
20
th
century
experimental
physics,
and
that
he
spent
the
later
part
of his
career
pioneering
this
new
field
and
developing
the
techniques
to
search
for
gravitational
waves.
We are
fortunate
today
to
have
his son Ugo
Amaldi,
an old
friend,
here
to
talk
and
give
us a
tribute
to his
father.
Hopefully,
this
will
be the
first
in a
long
series
of
successful
Amaldi
meetings
sponsored
by
GWIC
that
will
trace
the
progress
in
this
exciting
field
as
gravitational
waves
are
directly
detected
and
become
a new
tool
for
studying
fundamental
questions
in
physics
and
astronomy.
Downloaded 02 Oct 2007 to 131.215.225.176. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://proceedings.aip.org/proceedings/cpcr.jsp