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Dr T K Avirah Endowment Lecture
Dr.T K Avirah Endowment Lecture 2013-14
The seventh Dr.T K Avirah Endowment Lecture was conducted by the Department of Physics on 17th August 2013. The lecture was presented by Dr.C S Unnikrishnan, Professor, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. He is the group leader of Fundamental Interaction Lab in TIFR and visiting professor in Raman Research Institute, Bangalore.
The topic of lecture was ‘Gravitational Waves: Physics, Technology, and New Astronomy’. Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of space time that propagate as waves caused by accelerated masses. The existence of these waves was predicted by Albert Einstein on the basis of general theory of relativity. There is only an indirect evidence of the existence of gravitational waves. The orbit of Hulse – Taylor binary pulsar has decayed since the system was initially discovered in precise agreement with loss of energy due to gravitational waves. Gravitational waves can pass through intervening matter without being scattered significantly. Therefore gravitational waves can carry information about astronomical phenomena never before observed by humans. It is hypothesized that they will be able to provide observers on Earth with information of black holes and other exotic objects in the distant universe. A world-wide network of gravitational wave detectors have started an exciting search for these ripples in spacetime. They have not yet succeeded in detecting this phenomenon. In near future India is going to be a part of it. Dr.C S Unnikrishnan is the chair of the program management committee of Indian Initiative in Gravitational wave Observations (IndIGO).
Dr.T K Avirah is an alumnus of the college for MSc and BSc. His PhD is from Mississipi state University under Full Bright grant. He worked in the department of physics of the college for the period (1966-1999) and retired as Head of Department.
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