Understanding Gravitational Waves (Astronomers' Universe)

Preface
Read This Before You Jump-in at the Deep End
	How to Read This Book
	Numbers
	Units
	Constants, Definitions, Quantities, Symbols and Units
	Topicality
Contents
1: 14th September 2015
	On the Significance of 1/400 of a Proton’s Diameter
	What, Then Caused {10} GW150914?
2: Gravity: From 850,000,000 BCE to 1915 CE
	From Pre-History to Galileo
		Introduction
		In the Beginning
		Galileo
		Brahe and Kepler
	Newton
	Newton to Einstein: The Interregnum
		The Gravitational Constant
		Different Types of Mass: The Equivalence Principle
		Into the Nineteenth Century: And the Discrepancies Start to Appear
			Uranus’ Positional Anomaly
			Mercury’s Perihelion Positional Anomaly
3: Gravity: From 1915—Through Today—And on Towards Tomorrow
	Einstein
	Relativity
		Special Relativity
		General Relativity
			But What About Spacecraft?
			General Relativity: The Small Print
			General Relativity: The Nitty Gritty
	Testing General Relativity
		Mercury’s Perihelion Problem: First Test
		The Bending of Light Beams: Second Test
			Gravitational Lensing
		Gravitational Redshift: Third Test
		The Shapiro Effect: Fourth Test
	Rotating Frames of Reference
	Gravity into the Future
4: Gravitational Waves: The Long, Long Journey from Half-Seen Chimeras to Highly Studied Certainties
	Introduction
	Gravitational Waves up to Einstein
	Gravitational Waves After Einstein
	Gravitational Waves: The Real Thing
5: Gravitational Waves: Origins and Sources
	Introduction
	Potentially Observable Sources of Gravitational Waves
		Burst Type Gravitational Wave Sources
		Continuous Type Gravitational Wave Sources
		Inspiral Type Gravitational Wave Sources (Binary Merger Type Gravitational Wave Sources)
		Stochastic Type Gravitational Wave Sources
		Frequencies
	{90} GW170817: Three Detectors and Two Neutron Stars
	Some Final Questions and Thoughts About Gravitational Wave Sources
		Does the Earth Generate Gravitational Waves?
		Does the Earth Generate Gravitational Waves Which We Can Detect?
		What About Making Our Own Detectable Gravitational Waves Then?
		Suppose Some Event Produced Intense Gravitational Waves Very Nearby; Could I Be Injured?
		OK: Could the Earth/Sun/Solar System Be Affected Then?
	Gravitational Wave Sources: The First Nobel Prize
		Neutron Stars and Pulsars
			What Makes a Clock a Good Clock?
			Pulsar Clocks
		PSR B1913+16
6: Gravitational Wave Events: Calling the Roll
	Introduction
	Individual Gravitational Wave Events
		Observational Run O1
			{10} GW150914
			{20} GW151012
			{30} GW151226
		Observational Run O2
			{40} GW170104
			{50} GW170608
			{70} GW170809
			{80} GW170814
			{90} GW170817
			{100} GW170818
		Observational Runs O3a and O3b
			{180} GW190425z
			{270} GW190521g
			{430} GW190814bv
			{520} GW190924h
7: Into the Unknown: The First Years of the Quest for Gravitational Waves
	Introduction
	Weber’s Gravitational Wave Detector
	Other Resonant Gravitational Wave Detectors
		Material
		Cooling
		Mechanical Noise Reduction
		Detection
		Shape
		Detectors
8: Eureka!: A Beginner’s Guide to Making Successful Gravitational Wave Detectors
	Introduction
	Michelson and Morley
	The Present Day Scene
	The Next Few Years
	Interferometer-Based Gravitational Wave Detectors: The Devil Is in the Details
		General Noise
			Thermal Noise
			Shot Noise
			Refractive Index
			Shields and Baffles
		The Light Source
		Preparing the Initial Light Beam
		Beam Splitter
		The Light Beams Within the Arms
			Delay Line
			Fabry–Perot Cavities
			Frequency Limits
			Resonances
			Efficiency
		The Mirrors
			Test Masses and Their Supports
			The Mirrors Themselves
		Recombining the Beams
		Detection
			Optical Detectors
			Gravitational Wave Signatures
		Ancillary Items
	Putting It All Together
		Getting It Going
	The Detectors
9: Gravitational Waves and Their Detectors: Into the Future—And Beyond
	So, You Want to be an Amateur Gravitational Wave Astronomer, Do You?
		Build Your Own
		Become a Professional
		Keep in Touch
		Join in the Fun
	The Near(ish) Future
		The Future of Resonant Bar-Type Gravitational Wave Detectors
		The Future of Terrestrial Interferometer Gravitational Wave Detectors
			AdvLIGO, AdvVirgo and GEO600/GEO H-F
			KAGRA
	Slightly Further into the Future
		Atom Interferometers
		The Future of Space-Based Gravitational Wave Detectors
			Doppler Tracking
			Space-Based Interferometer Gravitational Wave Detectors
		Pulsar Timing Gravitational Wave Detectors
		The Long-Odds Runners
		Associated Events
	The Far Future
		Observing the Faintest of All Gravitational Waves
		Gravitational Waves: The Discovery of the Millennium?
		Gravitics
		Faster than Light? #1
		Faster than Light? #2
		Faster than Light? #3
		SETI
Epilogue
Appendix A: Memory Refreshers
	Appendix ☆ A.1: The Index Notation for Numbers
		Introduction
		The Index Notation for Numbers
			Large Numbers
			Small Numbers
			Index Notation: A Bonus
			And a Final Note: On 22, 40.5 and 3−1, etc.
	Appendix ☆ A.2: The Index Notation for Units
	Appendix ☆☆ A.3: The Inverse-Square Law
Appendix B: Further Study
	Appendix ☆☆ B.1: Centrifugal and Centripetal forces
	Appendix ☆☆☆ B.2: Angular Momentum
		Linear Momentum
		Angular Momentum
	Appendix ☆☆ B.3: Static and Rotating Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
	Appendix ☆☆ B.4: Light—Particle or Wave?
Appendix C: For the High Fliers
	Appendix ☆☆☆ C.1: Does Light have Mass? and/or Momentum?
	Appendix ☆☆ C.2: Tensor Analysis
	Appendix ☆☆☆ C.3: Fabry–Perot Cavities
Appendix D: Constants, Definitions, Quantities, Symbols and Units
	Système International D’unités, or SI System
		Convention
		SI Prefixes
Bibliography
Other Books by C.R. Kitchin
Gravity
Gravitational Waves and Their Detectors
Special/General Relativity
Black Holes, Neutron Stars and Other Compact Objects
Physics
Electricity and Magnetism
General
Light and Optics
Mathematics
Index