Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Physics Department Works to Improve Gravitational Wave Detection

Thursday, February 6, 2020, By Dan Bernardi
Share
College of Arts and SciencesLIGONational Science FoundationPhysicsResearch and CreativeSTEM
graphic of star

Artist rendering of the collision of two neutron stars. Researchers at SU are working to improve Advanced LIGO’s ability to record gravitational waves from such events. (Credit: NSF/LIGO/Sonoma State University/Aurore Simonnet)

Albert Einstein first predicted the presence of gravitational waves in 1916 in his general theory of relativity. Fast forward 99 years to 2015, when researchers obtained the first physical confirmation of a gravitational wave generated by two colliding black holes, nearly 1.3 billion light years away. This discovery, possibly one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements, was made possible by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Advanced LIGO).

The Advanced LIGO uses mirrors to help detect gravitational waves caused by the merging of black holes and neutron stars, but the faint signal can be masked by temperature fluctuations on the mirrors’ surface. Finding better reflective coatings for the mirrors could prevent these fluctuations, improving LIGO’s ability to measure gravitational waves.

This is where physics faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) come in. Thanks to a grant from the NSF, the physics department will play a key role in developing better gravitational wave detectors. The award specifically funds the purchase and construction of a “cryogenic elastic loss measurement apparatus,” which will test how mirrors with different coatings react to a wide range of temperatures. Leading the project are A&S physics Professor Stefan Ballmer, along with Steve Penn, co-principal investigator and associate professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Ballmer and his students will test coated glass sample disks from room temperature to 10 degrees above absolute zero using a device called a cryostat. The cryostat was purchased from the Syracuse-based company Cryomech, whose founder, William E. Gifford, was a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Syracuse University from 1961 to 1978. The results will help show which glass coatings can improve LIGO’s wave detection. This research is part of LIGO’s Centers for Coatings Research (CCR), a collaboration funded specifically to find better coatings for gravitational-wave interferometers.

Ballmer says, “This apparatus will allow Syracuse University to play a much bigger role in finding and validating the coatings needed to upgrade Advanced LIGO and other future gravitational-wave detectors.”

Detecting and analyzing the information carried by gravitational waves has allowed researchers to observe the universe in a way never before possible, providing astronomers and other scientists with their first glimpses of previously unseen phenomena like colliding black holes, merging neutron stars and exploding stars. Through research being done by faculty and students in the Department of Physics, that view into the unseen will become even clearer.

  • Author

Dan Bernardi

  • Recent
  • What’s New at Campus Dining in Fall 2025?
    Friday, August 29, 2025, By Jennifer DeMarchi
  • DPS Pilots License Plate Reader Technology to Enhance Campus Safety
    Friday, August 29, 2025, By Kiana Racha
  • IDJC Welcomes Fall 2025 Visiting Fellows Nathaniel Rakich and Miranda Spivack
    Friday, August 29, 2025, By Genaro Armas
  • Libraries Announces Fall 2025 Workshops
    Friday, August 29, 2025, By Cristina Hatem
  • Maxwell’s Baobao Zhang Awarded NSF CAREER Grant to Study Generative AI in the Workplace
    Friday, August 29, 2025, By Jessica Youngman

More In STEM

Maxwell’s Baobao Zhang Awarded NSF CAREER Grant to Study Generative AI in the Workplace

Baobao Zhang, associate professor of political science and Maxwell Dean Associate Professor of the Politics of AI, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for $567,491 to support her project, “Future of Generative Artificial Intelligence…

Discovering How and When Stuff Fails Leads to NSF Grant

When materials are forced into new shapes, a tipping point can shift them from flexibility and resilience to failing or breaking. Understanding that tipping point is at the core of Jani Onninen’s research. He has received a three-year grant from…

A&S Scientists Explore Protein Droplets as a New Way to Understand Disease

When we are young and healthy, our cells successfully monitor and manage our worn-out or damaged proteins, keeping things working properly. But as we age, this cleanup system can falter, leading to protein clumps linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as…

New Study Reveals Ozone’s Hidden Toll on America’s Trees

A new nationwide study reveals that ozone pollution—an invisible threat in the air—may be quietly reducing the survival chances of many tree species across the United States. The research, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres is the first…

Inspiring the Next Generation of STEM Enthusiasts

A friendly competition is brewing in the corner of a basement classroom in Link Hall during the annual STEM Trekkers summer program, where students are participating in a time-honored ritual: seeing who can build a paper airplane that travels the…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.