India Will Be Home To World's Biggest Science Project That Aims To Prove Einstein Wrong!

The site to set up an ultra-sensitive laser detector to find the elusive gravitational waves predicted by Einstein will be in Maharashtra, Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh.

Proving Einstein wrong?

An ironical twist has deprived Bengaluru - and Karnataka - of an opportunity to play a pivotal role in the biggest science project ever in the world. The project sets out to prove whether Albert Einstein was right or wrong - an objective which would either boost astrophysics or entirely change the way astrophysicists have been looking at it.

Sorry, Bengaluru

Despite having a large density of scientific and information technology institutions in and around Bengaluru, that very attraction - and resulting property development around the city - has eliminated not just Bengaluru but the entire state of Karnataka from the list of candidate sites to set up an extremely ultra-sensitive detector, called Laser Interferometry Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). This detector sets out to detect a shift which is as short a distance as a fraction of the nucleus of an atom in the laser beam due to impacts of gravitational waves emanating from even billions of light-years away.

Peers across the world

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Two such detectors exist in the USA - one at Hanford near Richland, Washington; the other at Livingston near Los Angeles. One of them is to begin operations to detect gravitational waves this year. A third is to be set up in India to form a part of a global LIGO network to detect the gravitational waves. The Indian scientific institutions involved in this project are Inter University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune; Institute of Plasma Research (IPR), Gandhinagar; Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore; the various institutions under the Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs); and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Probing the essence of stars

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The gravitational waves so far exist only in theory after Einstein predicted their existence using his General Theory of Relativity in 1915 - a century ago. Their detection using the LIGO network is expected to provide clear-cut details by answering questions like: What is the structure of neutron stars and how do they evolve? How common are black holes, and how are they distributed in the universe? What is the mechanism that causes collapsing stars to become supernovae? What were the physical processes involving matter-energy during the Big Bang? (And most importantly) Is Einstein's General Theory of Relativity the correct description of gravity?

Why Bengaluru got left out

"(But) Karnataka is too crowded, so we are finding it very difficult to find a site anywhere in the state," said Prof Bala Iyer, the chair of IndIGO Consortium Council, which is supervising the Indian leg of the project called LIGO-India.

IndIGO Consortium Council spokesperson Prof Tarun Souradeep of IUCAA informed Bangalore Mirror that Bengaluru and Karnataka have been eliminated because of the stringent conditions required to identify a site to set up the LIGO: There should be no ongoing heavy equipment, mining, blasting activity in a 30 km radius of the site or likely to start in the nominal 10-15 year life span of the experiment; no power-plant machinery, rock crushers and heavy machinery should be located at least 16 km from the site, with a preferred distance of at least 40 km; the site should be more than 10 km (preferably 16km) away from any busy railway track active at present, or, possible in the next 15 year; it should be more that 4-6 km from any major busy motor highway; the site should be over 60km from any major airport and more that 20km from a not-so-busy (less than 5 flights/day) airport; the site should be 100-200 away from the sea-coast; but it should be just a few hours by road to an international airport to facilitate cutting edge technology and readily serviced highly-trained technologists worldwide reaching the site.

One crucial condition is that the region where the site is located should not be earthquake-prone as even a slight tremor or vibration mandates temporary closure of the experiment - which is why the condition of a safe distance from railway tracks or airports.

A senior IndIGO scientist said "The vicinity of Bengaluru would have been ideal as it is located on the Deccan Plateau which is relatively earthquake-proof. But let alone close to Bengaluru, we were unable to find such a site anywhere in Karnataka too - it's just too crowded and there are no guarantees that development would not take place in the site's vicinity in the next 20 years."

According to the IndIGO Consortium Council, now three sites have been shortlisted - one each in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. According to sources in IndIGO Consortium Council, feasibility studies have already begun at two of the three shortlisted sites from which one would finally be identified to build the LIGO with the help of scientists and engineers from LIGO Laboratory, USA.

The LIGO-India is expected to start operations from 2022 initially for a ten-year period. LIGO Laboratory, USA, had first offered setting up a LIGO to Australia. "But the Australian government in October 2011 was not willing to make a long-term funding commitment for a project that would extend up to or even beyond ten years as they already have commitments to a series of other science projects," informed a senior scientist from IndIGO Consortium Council. Prof Souradeep said, "We are seeking approval for a budget of Rs 1,260 crore. We have a detailed project plan schedule through and expect the observatory to be operational in 2022."

The LIGO-India project proposal has been put forward by the consortium of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Department of Science & Technology (DST) for approval before the Union cabinet.

Gravitational Waves Carry Energy, Info

LIGO

Violent events, such as the collision of two black holes, are thought to be able to create ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. Gravitational waves carry not only energy, but also information about how they were produced. They are fundamentally different from that other cosmic messenger astronomers have come to rely on like electromagnetic radiation (light, radio waves, Xrays...). Almost all astronomical bodies are transparent to gravitational waves. The waves thus carry information that astronomers cannot not obtain by other means -- information about the flow of matter in the heart of a supernova, or about the material properties of merging neutron stars or black holes. They promise data about regions that would otherwise be hidden or accessible only indirectly through computer simulations.

Stringent Conditions For Site

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* In 30 km radius, no sustained heavy equipment, mining, blasting activity to start in the 10-15 year life span of the experiment

* Should be more than 10 km (preferably 16km) away from busy railway track active at present, or, possible in the next 15 year

* More than 60km from any major airport, and more than 20 km from a not-so-busy (less than 5 flights/day) airport

* Should be a few hours' drive from an international airport to facilitate cutting edge technology and highly trained technologists worldwide to reach the site

*No power-plant machinery, rock crushers and heavy machinery within at least 16 km from the site, with a preferred distance of at least 40 km

*More that 4-6 km from any major busy motor highway

*The site should 100 km to 200km away from the sea-coast

*Preferably close to a major science & technology hub

At the site

* The minimum requirement for the detector is a L-shaped site of an arms that is 4 km long in which the lasers will run.

* About 300 acres would be required.

* The area should be seismically quiet and free of anthropogenic noise but close enough to reasonable infrastructure for facilitating national and international collaboration.

The significance

The addition of LIGO-India to the international LIGO network offers a very significant improvement in establishing the sky location of gravitational wave sources as the only two LIGOs are on the other side of the globe, in USA.

Why LIGO is the largest science project

LIGO is expected to detect gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein using his Theory of General Relativity. But these gravitational waves have never been detected. If they are indeed detected they will reveal information about matters from which they have emanated. According to David Reitze, the LIGO Laboratory's principal investigator and director: "It opens us up to [viewing] a larger number of astrophysical events." It will allow astronomers look for black holes of between 100-500 times the mass of the sun...if they exist.

(Originally published in the Bangalore Mirror | Cover image for representational purpose only)