作　　者： ; ; ; ; ; ; (康飞）;

机构地区： 北京师范大学天文学系

出　　处： 《天文学进展》 2007年第1期58-73,共16页

摘　　要： 引力波的存在是爱因斯坦在广义相对论理论中提出的一个重要预言．由于目前技术水平的限制,无法在实验室产生足以被探测到的引力波,因此宇宙中大量的大质量剧烈活动的天体成为科学家研究引力波的首选,从而诞生了引力波天文学．引力波探测将开启研究宇宙的新窗口,是继电磁辐射、宇宙线和中微子探测后探索宇宙奥秘的又一重要手段,对天文学研究有着极为重要的意义.新一代应用了高灵敏度的迈克耳逊干涉仪装置的长基线引力波探测仪正在建造中．该综述从引力波理论出发,阐述了目前研究较多的可探测引力波源,给出了目前观测上的最新进展,并展望了今后的发展前景． Gravitational Waves（GW）are perturbations of space-time, which propagate at the speed of light. This is one of the predictions from the general relativistic theory proposed by Einstein in 1916. So far, their existence has been proven indirectly by Taylor and Hulse＇s observation on the decay of the orbital period in the binary pulsar PSR 1913＋16. Now the field of gravitational waves astronomy is inaugurated. The theory of gravitational radiation already makes an important contribution to the understanding of a lot of astronomical systems, such as binary neutron stars, cataclysmic variables, young neutron stars, low-mass X-ray binaries, and even the anisotropy of the microwave background radiation. Direct detection of GW is one of the most exciting subjects in physics and in modern astronomy. Up to now it is impossible to generate gravitational waves strong enough in laboratory that they can be detected with the aid of present technology in the world. The celestial sources of gravitational wave become the first choice of scientists for studying gravitational waves because of their huge mass and high speed. Gravitational waves are quite different from electro-magnetic waves, which give rise to the expectation that the detection of gravitational waves will reveal a new and different view of the universe. We can say the observations of gravitational waves will significantly complement the observations of electromagnetic waves, cosmic rays and neutrinos. A new generation of long baseline gravitational wave detectors is currently under construction. They incorporate high sensitive Michelson interferometers and high power stabilized laser sources, suspended optical components and high performance seismic filters. They have arm lengths of up to 4 km and operate in an ultra high vacuum environment. In this paper, we describe the theory of gravitational waves first. Then discuss the origin of gravitational waves. Various efforts for detecting gravitational waves are reviewed briefly. Fur- thermore, this

关 键 词： 天体物理学 引力波 综述 广义相对论 中子双星 引力波探测仪

领　　域： [天文地球] [天文地球]