PEOPLE

FEBRUARY 2016

WHISPER OF THE COSMOS HEARD. THE DISCOVERY OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES NARRATED BY ONE OF THE PROTAGONISTS
Interview with Fulvio Ricci, spokesperson of the VIRGO international Collaboration


It is the scientific news of 2016. The discovery, awaited for a century, of the gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein in his Theory of General Relativity .
A revolutionary milestone, which changes our outlook on the universe. The important result was achieved, thanks to the data of the twin detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory), by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (which includes the GEO600 Collaboration, the Australian Consortium for Interferometric Gravitational Astronomy) and VIRGO, part of the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), founded by the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
We asked one of the protagonists of this scientific enterprise, Fulvio Ricci, spokesperson of the VIRGO Collaboration, to tell us how this result was achieved, and how our understanding of the cosmos will change from now on.

 

The first direct gravitational wave signal was captured on 14 September 2015 after a century-long wait. Can you describe your feelings on that day?
I remember having received the first news of the signal via an email from Marco Drago, a young researcher trained in Italy by INFN and since one year in Germany, at the Max Planck Institute in Hannover. My first reaction was one of scepticism and incredulity. ...


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NEWS

FEBRUARY 2016

RESEARCH

THE LISA PATHFINDER CUBES FLOAT FREE

Launched on 3 December last year and in its operating position since 22 January, at approx. 1.5 million km from Earth in the direction of the Sun, at the beginning of February the LISA Pathfinder probe completed the first step of its delicate scientific mission. ...

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INSTITUTIONS

PRIME MINISTER RENZI AND MINISTER GIANNINI VISIT THE GRAN SASSO NATIONAL LABORATORIES

The Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has paid a visit to the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratories (LNGS), accompanied by the Minister of Education, University and Research, ...

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AWARDS

"BRUNO PONTECORVO" 2016 AWARDED TO GIANPAOLO BELLINI

The Italian physicist Gianpaolo Bellini has won the prestigious "Bruno Pontecorvo" 2016 international prize, awarded annually by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna. ...

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INFRASTRUCTURES

ACCELERATOR BUILT BY INFN HAS LEFT FOR JAPAN



A high-intensity accelerator built by INFN for the prototype of the International Fusion Material Irradiation Facility left in mid-February from the National Laboratories of Legnaro (LNL) headed for Japan. 
 ...

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FOCUS ON


EUROPEAN SYNCHROTRON RADIATION FACILITY - THE EXTREMELY BRILLIANT SOURCE PROJECT

The ESRF-EBS (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility –Extreme Brilliant Source) is a major project that aims to create a new generation of synchrotrons with performances that are unique in the world. The ESRF-EBS is a major challenge requiring state-of-the-art accelerator technology to realise a very innovative relativistic electron beam dynamics design. The project sees the collaboration between France and Italy with INFN at the heart of the development of breakthrough technologies. This unique ESRF-EBS project is supported by the 21 partner nations of the ESRF, including France, the host-country, and Italy whose contributions to the ESRF amounts to 27.5% and 13.2% respectively. The principal aim of this project is to construct and commission the new 844 m circumference ESRF-EBS storage ring, over the period 2015-2022. On the 8th of February, in Grenoble, the Director General of ESRF, Francesco Sette, the Chairman of the Council of the ESRF, Bertrand Girard, and the President of INFN, Fernando Ferroni, signed a collaboration agreement in the presence of the Italian and French Ministers, Stefania Giannini, Minister for Education, Universities and Research, and Thierry Mandon, Minister of State for Higher Education and Research. The agreement represents a key step in the construction and installation phases of the ESRF-EBS new storage ring that will be 100 times brighter than the existing source. It will result in an exchange of expertise and a strengthening of technical assistance between ESRF and INFN. ...

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CONTACT



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INFORMATION


cover image:

Computer simulation of the collision of two black holes. Copyright SxS

 

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