Abstract
This project aims to search for new sources of gravitational waves following the detection and first direct observation in 2015. The sensitivity of the current generation of gravitational wave interferometers will gradually be increased so every 10 to 20 days a binary black hole coalesce will be observed. It becomes interesting to search for weak signals originating from weak or distant sources, such as the coalescence of remote binary black holes, or binary neutron stars. Apart from these sources, do there also exist gravitational waves from more exotic sources, such as cosmic strings or black holes of several solar masses. Is it possible to isolate the ripples in the space-time fabric coming from the Big Bang itself from the different sources of gravitational waves? The current gravitational wave interferometers in the United States of America and Europe will start a year-long observation run in the spring of 2019 to improve the current sensitivity be a factor of 10. Afterwards the interferometers will undergo several improvements to steadily increase the sensitivity, followed by new observation periods. This should allow us to measure the gravitational waves of weak astrophysical sources such as the coalescence of remote binary black holes and remote neutron stars.
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