Abstract
The success of the LIGO collaboration in detecting gravitational waves passing by the Earth adds to the significance of the first observational evidence that gravitational waves existed which was made possible over 40 years ago by the discovery of the first binary pulsar by Joe Taylor and Russell Hulse. This paper examines the theoretical controversies over how best to interpret measurements of the orbital decay of this remarkable system. Ultimately the conclusion that the decay was entirely due to the system’s emission of gravitational radiation paved the way for LIGO, as well as for a Nobel Prize for Taylor and Hulse.
Parts of this paper appeared previously in an article in the European Physical Journal H entitled “The binary pulsar and the quadrupole formula controversy” Kennefick, D. EPJ H (2017). 42, 293–310.
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Notes
- 1.
An interesting side note to the binary pulsar discovery of gravitational waves is the common use of phrases like “indirect detection” of gravity waves, to distinguish Taylor and company’s work from the long awaited “direct detection” of gravitational waves by Earth-based detectors. A number of people have pointed out the fallacy in this kind of thinking, observing that, strictly speaking, the binary pulsar evidence is no more indirect than any other detection. Two people I am thinking of particularly are Thibault Damour and Allan Franklin, both of whom have made the point to me personally. While it is true that the astronomers use electromagnetic signals from the source system, and must then infer the presence of gravitational waves from the observed behavior, the same is true of Earth-based detectors, which also use electromagnetically controlled detection of local masses and deduce the presence of gravitational waves from the motions of those masses. In some sense the only difference is that the binary pulsar astronomers only observe the source of the gravitational waves, and thus cannot comment on the propagation through space of these waves. Another distinction, of some relevance to our discussion, is that the theory required to analyze the binary pulsar system is not the linearized gravity which suffices for the Earth-based detector, and therefore, it could be argued, it is a more complex and more controversial process of deduction. Certainly the response to the first detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO instruments has been notable for its lack of any skeptical voice.
- 2.
At this point on the interview recording, the author can hear himself say ‘Really.’
- 3.
A reference to Kennefick (2007), illustrating one of the problems faced by an oral historian who wishes to write books and continue doing oral histories!
- 4.
We cannot hope, with current technology, to detect the gravitational waves emitted by the known binary pulsar systems. It is only when such systems reach their terminal point and spiral into each other and merge that Earth-based detectors can hope to observe them.
- 5.
A sample of modern gravitational wave skepticism is given by the following references: Cooperstock (1992), Bel (1996), Aldrovandi et al. (2008), and, for the non-professional viewpoint, see the webpage http://www.god-does-not-play-dice.net/Szabados.html#SBG, accessed on April 24th, 2009.
- 6.
Arnold Rosenblum died tragically at a young age in 1991 (Cohen et al. 1991).
- 7.
Parts of this section are based on an unpublished paper by the author and Harry Collins.
- 8.
Another question I cannot answer is if n historians study the same historical episode, can we rely on the n + 1th historian reaching the same conclusions? Can I do so if n = 1? Is there any sense in which historical micro-studies of this kind can be compared to real science? Is there a historians’ regress related to the problem of when history ends, just as the experimenters’ regress relates to the problem of when experiments end? The phrase “when history ends” may seem millennial in tone, but note the aptness of the word apocalypse which means “the lifting of the veil,” which is certainly what the historian is trying to do. Just as the radio astronomer does in continuing his timing measurements over longer periods to greater degrees or precision, or as the theorist does in delving to higher orders in an approximation scheme, so the historian burrows down more deeply in a micro-study. But in historical analysis we should be careful to practice Interpretational Frugality, a sort of inverse form of Occam’s Razor. We may multiply entities if it is in the service of keeping our feet grounded in the local. Not all morals are generally applicable. In the words of Bart Simpson, sometimes there is no moral, “just a bunch of stuff that happened.”
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Joseph Taylor, Clifford Will, Thibault Damour, Joel Weisberg, and the late Peter Havas, all of whom permitted me to interview them for the research which gave rise to this paper. All of the interviews, except the one with Peter Havas, were recorded. Both Harry Collins and Allan Franklin discussed some of the issues bearing on this paper with me many times, and aspects of it are based on an unpublished draft of a paper written by Collins and me. I would like to thank both of them for their help and inspiration on this work. Diana Buchwald and Kip Thorne both helped me far more than I can recall in the early stages of this work, and I would also like to thank David Rowe for giving me the chance to finally turn it into a paper and for his patience waiting for it to be finished.
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Kennefick, D. (2018). Relativistic Lighthouses: The Role of the Binary Pulsar in Proving the Existence of Gravitational Waves. In: Rowe, D., Sauer, T., Walter, S. (eds) Beyond Einstein. Einstein Studies, vol 14. Birkhäuser, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7708-6_6
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