Gravitational Waves Fun

Organized by

Short description

We are getting together with interested students to watch Kip Thorne's PH237 - Gravitational Waves lectures. The lectures cover the basics of General Relativity as well as advanced topics in Gravitational Wave Astronomy, GW detectors (LIGO, LISA) and the numerical work needed to make them work. All Kip's lectures were recorded on video (at Mihai's suggestion). The movies together with recommended reading, homework and solutions are also available online at http://elmer.caltech.edu/ph237 . We'll try to do some fun stuff after each meeting that will give us the chance to talk informally and meet each other better.

When & Where:

We are meeting every Friday at 5 PM starting on February 6, 2004. We meet in the Physics Lounge (Clark 125) and then we go up to the Space Sciences Computer Lab (4th Floor).

Note: The Space Sciences building closes at 4:30 PM. So, if you come late and don't have a key please call me on my cell phone to open the door.

We look forward to seeing you all!

We are meeting during the Spring break, too!

April 24: Mihai is giving a talk today about his research with Kip involving new family of flat-topped beams for the LIGO interferometer. Come as usual at 5 pm in the physics lounge. Abstract. Powerpoint file.

We are meeting during the summer, but since only Tanja and Dave and I come regularly now we change the meeting time according to our schedules. Last week we met on Thurday at 3 PM (June 3rd), now we are meeting on Tuesday (June 8th). We are usually watching the lectures in the Physics lounge. So, please email me if you are interested in comming.

Participants

• Ruxandra Bondarescu (ruxandra at ncsa.uiuc.edu or ruxandra at cornell.edu)
• Dave Tsang (dtsang at physics.cornell.edu)
• Nicholas Taylor (ntw2 at cornell.edu
• Tanja Hinderer (tph25 at cornell.edu)
• Sharvari Nadkarni (snadkarni at physics.cornell.edu)
• Kiran V. Thadani (kvt2 at cornell.edu)
• Mansi Manoj Kasliwal (mmk32 at cornell.edu)
• Steve Drasco (sdrasco at baba.astro.cornell.edu>
• Kelken Chang (kelken at physics.cornell.edu)
• Jeandrew Bink (jb275 at physics.cornell.edu)

Honorary Guests (people who came only once)

Program

• 02/06/04 5PM-6:30PM
  • Kip's 1st lecture
• Fri, 02/13/04 6:00PM-7:40PM
  • Kip's 2nd lecture
• Fri, 02/20/04 5:00PM-7:30
  • Kip's 3rd lecture
  • Free CDs with Kip's first two lectures to all participants!
• Fri, 02/27/04 5:00PM-8:30
  • Kip's 4th lecture
  • Problems solved on the board from Kip's second assignment:
    --Mansi - problem 1
    --Ruxandra - problem 2
    --Tanja - problem 3
    --Nick - problem 4
    --Steve - problem 5
• Fri, 03/05/04 5:00-7:30
  • Kip's 5th lecture
• Fri, 03/12/04 5:00-8:30
  • Kip's 6th Lecture
  • Problems solved on the board from Kip's third assignment:
    --Nick - problem 1
    --Tanja - problem 2
    --Ruxandra - problem 8
• Fri, 03/19/04 5:00-7:30
  • Kip's 7th Lecture
• Tuesday, March 23 -hiking trip ( organized by Steve and Nick )
• Fri, 03/26/04 5:00-7:30
  • Kip's 8th Lecture
• Saturday, March 27 - hiking trip
• Fri, 04/02/04 5:00-8:20
  • Kip's 9th Lecture
  Problems solved on the board from Kip's 4th assignment:
  --Ruxandra - problem 4
  --Tanja - problem 5
  
• Fri, 04/09/04 5:00-7:30
  • Kip's 10th Lecture
• Fri, 04/16/04 5:00-8:20
  • Lecture 14: Alecsandra+ Kip
  Problems solved on the board from Kip's 5th assignment:
  --Dave - problem 2
  --Tanja - problem 4
  --Ruxandra - problem 5
• Fri, 04/23/04 5:00-6:40
  • Mihai gave an informal talk about his research with Kip: A new family of flat-topped beams for Advanced LIGO. Abstract. Powerpoint file. We had a party afterwards and we went hiking on Saturday and Sunday. Click here to see pictures with us.
• Fri, 04/30/04 5:00-7:00
  Kip's Lecture 16
• Fri, 05/07/04 5:00-7:00
  Kip's Lecture 17 (Lee Lindblom: Neutron Stars)
• Fri, 05/14/04 5:00-7:00
  Kip's Lecture 18 (Marc Scheel: 3+1 formalism)
• Wed, May 20 - Swimming trip with Steve, Tanja and Dave
• Th, 06/03/04 3:00-5:00
  Kip's Lectue 19
• Tu, 06/08/04 3:00-5:00
  Kip's Lecture 20