What are inspirals?

brat' fettlos mit salamo ohne
brat' fettlos m...
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Topic 191164

According to Message 30589 , I wonder what it is. dict.leo has nothing (I'm from germany), and the google results do not help me either. Needless to say I'm not very knowledgeable about the inner terminology of gravitational physics...but always very interested :-)

Thanks in advance

fettlos

Chipper Q
Chipper Q
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What are inspirals?

Hi fettlos,

“Inspiral� refers to a binary star system (usually a combination of neutron stars and/or black holes), specifically the first portion of an expected gravitational waveform to be detected with LIGO, where the stars spiral in towards each other. This is followed by “merger�, which is the event where the stars collide/combine, and in the case of black holes, the merger waveform is followed by one called “ringdown� which is expected to be similar to the audio waveform of a bell that has been rung.

Es99
Es99
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RE: Hi

Message 30274 in response to message 30273

Quote:

Hi fettlos,

“Inspiral� refers to a binary star system (usually a combination of neutron stars and/or black holes), specifically the first portion of an expected gravitational waveform to be detected with LIGO, where the stars spiral in towards each other. This is followed by “merger�, which is the event where the stars collide/combine, and in the case of black holes, the merger waveform is followed by one called “ringdown� which is expected to be similar to the audio waveform of a bell that has been rung.


What would we do without you Chipper? When I saw this thread my mind went blank and all I could think about was the band Inspiral Carpets.

Physics is for gurls!

brat' fettlos mit salamo ohne
brat' fettlos m...
Joined: 14 Mar 05
Posts: 2
Credit: 51896
RAC: 0

RE: Hi

Message 30275 in response to message 30273

Quote:

Hi fettlos,

“Inspiral� refers to a binary star system (usually a combination of neutron stars and/or black holes), specifically the first portion of an expected gravitational waveform to be detected with LIGO, where the stars spiral in towards each other. This is followed by “merger�, which is the event where the stars collide/combine, and in the case of black holes, the merger waveform is followed by one called “ringdown� which is expected to be similar to the audio waveform of a bell that has been rung.

Oh my, I was closer than I thought. It's been my best guess that it has to be something "spiraling inwards". But, as we can see, my tiny inferior brain wasn't able to put together the obvious ;-)

So thank you Chipper for this lucid explanation.

greetz

fettlos

Chipper Q
Chipper Q
Joined: 20 Feb 05
Posts: 1540
Credit: 708571
RAC: 0

RE: Oh my, I was closer

Message 30276 in response to message 30275

Quote:
Oh my, I was closer than I thought. It's been my best guess that it has to be something "spiraling inwards". But, as we can see, my tiny inferior brain wasn't able to put together the obvious ;-)


Hey, mine's tiny and inferior too. I've only slowly realized that perseverance is key. If you've googled “binary inspiral� then you've seen some good examples of what the super-brains are working on! :)

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