October 9 (Thursday) Noon-1:00pm, Olin 04
The Chesley Lecturer Kip Thorne will give a lunchtime talk “LIGO and LISA – Probing the Astrophysical Universe with Gravitational Waves, and Probing Quantum Mechanical Behavior of Human-Sized Objects. Kip will give a brief survey of the astrophysical discoveries that LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) and LISA (the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) are likely to make. He will also describe the possibility for using LIGO’s instruments to observe and explore the quantum mechanical behavior of human-sized objects (LIGO’s 40 kilogram mirrors).