发现引力波——2017年诺贝尔物理学奖解读

The stories inside and behind gravitational wave: A brief introduction to the Nobel Prize in Physics 2017

2017年10月3日,终于到了宣布2017年物理学奖的时刻,诺奖委员会宣布:2017年的诺贝尔物理学奖授予三位美国物理学家雷纳·韦斯(Rainer Weiss)、基普·索里(Kip Stephen Thorne)和巴里·巴里什(Barry Clark Barish),表彰他们对于研制激光干涉引力波天文台以及利用该天文台发现了引力波作出了决定性的贡献。这样的结果毫无悬念,和物理学界大部分学者的预言完全一样。那么,这个科学发现到底是什么?和现代物理学的发展有什么关系?爱因斯坦和这个发现是什么关系?引力波有什么用?有办法防引力波辐射吗?引力波探测与研究的未来是什么?中国在引力波探测领域的现状和未来计划是什么?笔者将在这篇文章里回答上面这些问题。

On October 3rd, 2017, it was announced that the Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 was divided, one half awarded to Rainer Weiss, the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne ＂for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves＂ . In this article, I shall try to answer the following questions： What is this scientific discovery？ What is its relationship with the development of modern physics？ What is its relationship with Einstein？ Is gravitational wave useful？ Is there any way to shield gravitational waves？ What is the future of the detection of and research on gravitational waves？ What are the t＇uture programs of gravitational wave detection in China？