General Relativity (GR)
Refresh on General Relativity Gravitational Lensing Gravitational Redshift Black Holes Gravitational Waves
Principle of General Relativity
Every accelerated observer experiences the same laws of nature. In other words, no experiment inside a sealed room can tell you whether you are accelerating in the absence of gravity, or at rest in the presence of gravity. These two situations yield identical results
No experiment can distinguish between these two situations !
Light beams in accelerating Ref. Frame
q If you were accelerating upward very rapidly and shined a light beam, what would you see?
This is because during the time that the light is moving to the right, the floor is accelerating upward. Would not see this for spaceship moving at constant velocity.
General Relativity
According to General Relativity, this experiment must come out the same if performed in the presence of gravity on the earth. Gravity
must bend light beams !
But, how can that be? How can there be a gravitational force on light? Light doesnt have mass? This prediction is outside the realm of Newtonian physics.. It is a fundamental prediction of Einsteins General Relativity.
Light and Space
What do we mean by a straight line ? Straightness can be defined as the path followed by a light beam. Surveyors often use lasers (light beams) to determine straightness But, what does it mean now, if light itself is bent by the presence of gravity ? Light has no mass, so how can this be ??
Einstein came up with the answer Space is warped (bent) by gravity !
Curvature of Space I
So, its not that light is per se bending because of a gravitational force. Rather, in General Relativity, it is theorized that light bends because it is in fact traveling along space which is itself bent !
Earth following the curvature of space !
It cant do anything else, other than travel through whatever space is there!
This implies that large masses (like the sun) actually curve (or warp) 3D space. When light passes nearby, it follows the curvature of this space.
Gravitational Lensing
This shows only two paths for the light. Clearly there are many more paths it could take: Massive
galaxy Light coming toward you
Paths shown in diagram
Should get many images..
Actual gravitational lens. See many skewed images of the lensed galaxy !
Another test of General Relativity
q Odd features observed in Mercurys orbit. q Mercury, being very close to the sun is greatly influenced by the curvature of space produced by the sun.
With each revolution, the point of closest approach actually inches forward a bit.. Newtons theory of gravitation predicts a value for this shift which is half as large as observed. General Relativity is bang on !
Pound-Rebka Experiment
Green Laser
Green Laser Accelerating backward
Wave gets stretched out, which increases its wavelength turns redder
According to GR, no experiment can differentiate between acceleration with no gravity, or the effect of gravity alone. Gravity should stretch light waves out causing them to redden
Pound-Rebka Experiment
Jefferson Tower at Harvard
Gamma Ray detector q As the light wave (photon) fights its way up through the gravitational field, it loses energy. q The loss of energy means it moves down the EM spectrum wavelength increases.
High energy
74 ft
qThe increase in wavelength was in good agreement with what GR predicted ! q Newtons theory cannot account for this. q Because the wave moves down toward the red, its called Gravitational Redshift Gamma ray source
Low energy
Curvature of Space II
Are there any other implications of this conjecture that mass can curve space? Yes, heres another There are stars out there which are 10s, 100s even millions of times larger than our sun. When they use up all their fuel and eventually die, it is expected that they eventually form what is known as a black hole. Theyre called black holes because the curvature is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape this 3D well. Cant directly see em !
Very large curvature of space near a black hole!
Evidence for Black Holes
How does one get evidence for black holes, if, by definition, yo u cannot see them? Many star systems consist of two stars rotating about each other (known as a binary star system). In some cases, we see a star apparently orbiting around nothing ? Can this be? M
R
The mass of the missing object can be estimated rather easily using Newtons Law of Gravitation (no need to memorize this formula) M = v2R / G v = velocity of star
In some cases, we find values of M that are 10, 100, 1000s, even millions of times larger than the mass of our sun Black hole !
Black Holes (cont)
Surrounding the visible companion star, there is a lot of hot gas. This gas consists of hydrogen, free electrons, protons, etc..
X-ray jets Visible star
Because of the tremendous gravitational force from the black hole (ie., the extremely large curvature of space), the hot gas around the visible star is sucked into the black hole. The charged particles are accelerated to great speeds as they spiral into the black hole. These accelerated charges emit blasts of X-rays. These X-rays can be detected here on earth !
Black hole
Curved Space-Time
We have now learned that large masses can warp space. But because of special relativity, space and time are inherently tangled up together. Without going into too much detail, we simply conclude that large masses warp time in addition to space. That is time can be dilated as a result of large masses !
Large masses warp space-time
Gravitational Waves
Another fundamental prediction of General Relativity is gravitational waves. We saw that EM waves can be produced by accelerating charges. Einsteins theory of General Relativity predicts Gravitational that gravitational waves Wave are emitted when a huge emitted, mass undergoes a rapid and travels at spatial change (acceleration).
speed = c
One way this could happen is when a huge star dies, it eventually collapses to form a super-massive black hole.
Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory (LIGO)
LIGO is an experiment commissioned to detect gravitational waves reaching the earth from out there.
Livingston,LA Arm 1 Spokane, WA
2.5 miles
Arm 2
Notice:
2 observatories very far from each other. 2 arms perpendicular to each other !
To learn more: http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/LIGO_web/about/
What do you expect to see?
Electromagnetic-type disturbance
Expectation for a gravitational wave
The gravitational wave has an amplitude of ~1 part in 1022 ! This means a meter stick would expand and contract by 10-22 [m] This is equivalent to detecting the motion of Saturn if it were to move closer to the sun by the diameter of a single hydrogen atom!
LIGO principle
The light bounces back and forth on each arm. If the lengths of the 2 arms are exactly the same, the light should come back and constructively interfere. If a gravitational wave passes, and stretches one dimension and compresses the other, all bets are off. If the latter happens, you will get a short time of destructive interference as the gravitational wave passes by
LIGO Continued
Why 2.5 miles? The amount of stretching and compressing of space is a fraction of the size (~ 1/1022 ). So by making the arms bigger, one gets a larger displacement. Why 2 laboratories? If a gravitational wave passes by/through the earth, you should see the expansion & contraction of space at both labs at ~same time. Useful for immediate rejection of events which are not at the same time (could occur because of seismic activity, for example).
FYI, More tests
A nice web page which describes various tests of General Relativity, see: http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia /NumRel/EinsteinTest.html Also, if you just do a Google search on General Relativity tests youll get some other nice pages
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General Relativity Recap
Deals with accelerating IRFs. One outcome of this is that gravity can bend light. Einsteins interpretation is that matter bends, or warps space. We circle the sun because the earth is just following a warped space; thats all it can do ! General Relativity in a nutshell Matter determines the curvature of space The space determines how matter will move in it..
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