The case was the first announced recording¹ of space-time oscillations -- gravitational waves, reaching the Earth after a catastrophe² that happened far in the Universe. That confirms a significant prediction made in the special theory of relativity made by Albert Einstein 1916 and enables a brand-newunprecedented understanding of space. "The scientific importance of that fact is immeasurable. Just as it was with electromagnetic waves, we will be able to realize its full meaning later," says Valery Mitrofanov, the director of LIGO's Moscow team. "LIGO Scientific Collaboration³ started in 1992, the time particularly difficult for our country, but Russia joined the project thanks to Vladimir Braginskiy, one of the pioneers in gravitational waves researching in the world. I would like to stress his merit of creation a school at the MSU Faculty⁴ of Physics, able to produce scientists that could participate in LIGO project and contribute significantly to the job of its large team. We hope that it inspires other the students of the MSU Faculty of Physics, since we have a range of new challenges awaiting decisions."

 

"For the first time in the history of science the waves of spacetime curvature were recorded, this discovery starts a new era in astronomy," - says professor Sergey Vyatchanin, professor of the MSU Faculty of Physics.

 

"This is an outstanding attainment⁵ that lays a way to a new research direction -- gravitational wave astronomy. Only a large collaboration of scientists in an international project managed to conduct it," says Igor Bilenko. "It is remarkable⁶ that the fundamental discoveries made by a great Russian scientist Vladimir Braginskiy and his colleagues, -- quantum limits, methods of quantum measurements and quantum fluctuations⁷, -- were a significant contribution to the project."

 

"A number of Russian researches influenced the decisions of LIGO. The Moscow team put its efforts to overcoming noises that prevent from finding effects that are rarely recorded and hence are difficult to discover. Though, they influence the detectors⁸ of LIGO significantly," -- says Leonid Prokhorov.

 

Russian Federation⁹ is represented in the LIGO collaboration by the two groups of scientists from the Faculty of Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and from the Institute of Applied¹⁰ Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

 

The group from Moscow was founded and lead by Professor Vladimir Braginsky, the world-famous scientist, one of the pioneers of gravitational-wave research.

点击收听单词发音