CHINA Underground Detector Proposed to Join Hunt for Gravitational Waves.pdf

CHINA: Underground Detector Proposed to Join Hunt for Gravitational Waves

BEIJING--Using Einstein's name as a selling point, a team of Chinese scientists hopes
to build an underground physics facility that will let them join the global search for
gravitational waves. The project, if approved, would also mark a significant milestone
in China's support for fundamental research that doesn't promise an economic payoff.

Gravitational waves were posited by Einstein in his 1915 general theory of relativity.
But these subtle ripples in spacetime, postulated to originate in violent events such as
supernovas and the collision of black holes, have never been observed. The China
Einstein Gravitational Wave Observatory (CEGO) plement existing
observatories such as LIGO in the United States and VIRGO in Europe, as well as
LISA, a space-based antenna being developed jointly by NASA and the European
Space Agency, and DECIGO, a similar antenna under consideration by the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency.

China's effort is led by geophysicist Tang Keyun of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences' (CAS's) Institute of Geology and Geophysics. Tang has spent a decade
chasing solar eclipses for evidence of a graviton, a hypothetical particle responsible
for gravity. According to one theory, the moon's juxtaposition between Earth and the
sun during a total eclipse