HILLSDALE, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Hillsdale College Associate Professor of Physics Dr. Timothy Dolch and two physics alumni co-authored a study that detected slowly oscillating gravitational waves, which were first hypothesized by Albert Einstein in his general theory of relativity.

According to Einstein’s theory, gravity can be imagined like a bowling ball placed on the surface of a trampoline, which leaves a dent in the fabric surface that disturbs other objects on the trampoline. Spacetime is analogous to the trampoline surface, except that it is three-dimensional in space and one-dimensional in time rather than two-dimensional on stretched fabric. In this environment, an accelerating, massive object can cause spacetime to undulate, producing gravitational waves. These invisible waves travel through space at the speed of light (about 186,000 miles per second).

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The effects created by these waves were observed in data acquired by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). As part of their research, the Hillsdale colleagues reviewed, recorded, and analyzed this data.

“It took centuries for physicists to detect radio waves. Those discoveries paved the way for the recent and groundbreaking discovery of the gravitational wave sky,” Dolch said. “Through NANOGrav data, we uncovered a previously undetected, low-frequency species of gravitational waves.”

NANOGrav researchers studied 15 years of data collected from the radio signals of distant pulsars — small, dense stars that rotate rapidly and consistently while emitting radio waves. Signals from pulsars appear to blink on and off due to their rotation, and since this pattern is incredibly precise, scientists can use pulsars as “cosmic clocks.” The passing of gravitational waves slightly alters the pulsars’ timing, which allows researchers to use a group of pulsars the size of our galaxy as a giant gravitational wave detection device. Astronomers call this a pulsar timing array.

These new findings open up a hitherto hidden part of the gravitational wave spectrum at low frequencies, in which these waves ripple through a point in spacetime several times per year. More easily observable high-frequency gravitational waves were detected in 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, in which spacetime vibrates hundreds of times per second.

According to Space.com, the source of these newly uncovered gravitational waves is believed to be supermassive black hole binaries, which could indicate that black hole binaries were far more prevalent than previously believed. There’s even a chance that part of this low-frequency gravitational wave is a relic of the Big Bang itself, the beginning of space and time. Such a wave could have a wavelength of up to 100 million light-years, or about 5.9 x 1020 miles. (For context, the Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across.)

“This finding opens up a new low-frequency window on the gravitational universe which will let us study how galaxies and their central black holes merge and grow with time,” said National Radio Astronomy Observatory astronomer Scott Ransom, who works with NANOGrav. This, in turn, could help explain how the early universe developed.

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Dolch began working with NANOGrav in 2011 as a postdoctoral researcher and became a full member in 2012. His research has focused on how the hydrogen in our galaxy affects gravitational wave signals, and he has been a regular NANOGrav observer with Arecibo Observatory and the Green Bank Telescope. Since 2019, he has chaired or co-chaired the Education and Public Outreach Working Group though which he has helped involve undergraduate researchers in NANOGrav science.

“This discovery will serve undoubtedly as another key in unlocking the vast mysteries of the cosmos,” Dolch said.