Gravitational-wave research as an emerging field in the Max Planck Society. The long roots of GEO600 and of the Albert Einstein Institute

Abstract

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary since the beginning of the search for gravitational waves at the Max Planck Society, and in coincidence with the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Albert Einstein Institute, we explore the interplay between the renaissance of general relativity and the advent of relativistic astrophysics following the German early involvement in gravitational-wave research, to the point when gravitational-wave detection became established by the appearance of full-scale detectors and international collaborations. On the background of the spectacular astrophysical discoveries of the 1960s and the growing role of relativistic astrophysics, Ludwig Biermann and his collaborators at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Munich became deeply involved in research related to such new horizons. At the end of the 1960s, Joseph Weber's announcements claiming detection of gravitational waves sparked the decisive entry of this group into the field, in parallel with the appointment of the renowned relativist Juergen Ehlers. The Munich area group of Max Planck institutes provided the fertile ground for acquiring a leading position in the 1970s, facilitating the experimental transition from resonant bars towards laser interferometry and its innovation at increasingly large scales, eventually moving to a dedicated site in Hannover in the early 1990s. The Hannover group emphasized perfecting experimental systems at pilot scales, and never developed a full-sized detector, rather joining the LIGO Scientific Collaboration at the end of the century. In parallel, the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) had been founded in Potsdam, and both sites, in Hannover and Potsdam, became a unified entity in the early 2000s and were central contributors to the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015.

94 pages. Enlarged version including new results from further archival research. A previous version appears as a chapter in the volume The Renaissance of General Relativity in Context, edited by A. Blum, R. Lalli and J. Renn (Boston: Birkhauser, 2020)

References in corpus (5)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• Gravitational Waves and Gamma-rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A
• DC-readout of a signal-recycled gravitational wave detector
• Gravitational-wave research as an emerging field in the Max Planck Society. The long roots of GEO600 and of the Albert Einstein Institute
• Gravitational Machines

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Key Science Goals for the Next-Generation Event Horizon Telescope
• Study of null and time-like geodesics in the exterior of a Schwarzschild black hole with quintessence and cloud of strings
• Gravitational-wave research as an emerging field in the Max Planck Society. The long roots of GEO600 and of the Albert Einstein Institute
• The Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration: History, Philosophy, and Culture
• Is it time to rethink quantum gravity?
• Why did the dark matter hypothesis supersede modified gravity in the 1980s?
• Does a Second-Class Primary Constraint Generate a Gauge Transformation? Electromagnetisms and Gravities, Massless and Massive
• What Represents Space-time? And What Follows for Substantivalism \emph{vs.} Relationalism and Gravitational Energy?