Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime. The phenomenon can be compared to ripples on a sheet when a heavy ball is placed on it and spun around. In the universe, these “balls” are massive objects such as black holes and neutron stars, which vibrate spacetime as they orbit and eventually merge. These gravitational waves are emitted through space and, although very subtle, can be detected on Earth with the correct equipment. Since the first successful detection of a gravitational wave in 2015, almost a century after Einstein’s theoretical prediction, about 100 such events have been observed around the world. The observations give us valuable insights into the properties and behaviour of massive objects in the universe.
VUB astrophysicist Kevin Turbang of the Elementary Particle Physics research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel focused his PhD research on observing these waves and studying the background noise produced by fainter, more distant sources.
“By analysing this background noise, we hope to get a better picture of the population of binary black holes and neutron stars in the universe,” Turbang says. “What makes this research particularly exciting is the possibility of using the background noise to discover cosmic phenomena and processes dating back to the earliest phases of the universe, shortly after the Big Bang. However, research shows that current technology and analytical methods are not yet adequate to accurately measure this background noise. To overcome this, we proposed a new algorithm and using simulated data we were able to show that this new analytical approach offers promising results. With our alternative approach, once the measurement infrastructure improves, the detection time will become significantly shorter and expand our knowledge about the universe,” he says.