Gravitational Waves (GW150914)
2015First direct detection of gravitational waves, from the merger of two roughly 30-solar-mass black holes, confirming a 1916 prediction of general relativity and following decades of indirect evidence (the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar, 1974) and unsuccessful direct-detection attempts. Also a major astrophysical result in its own right (first direct observation of a binary black hole system). Detected Sept 14 2015; announced and published Feb 11 2016 (PRL 116, 061102). This node anchors to the 2015 detection date, not the 2016 publication date, matching the Adam node's existing arXiv-submission-over-publication precedent. Weiss, Barish and Thorne shared the 2017 Nobel Prize.
Discovery Velocity
Normalized OpenAlex paper velocity, one point per year.
Originators
- LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Landmark Paper
Checked 2026-08-30 — interim signal only, see docs/BASIC_ROADMAP.md Phase 10
Enabled By
- Advanced LIGO (2015)Scientific Instrumentationbasis: empirical
Advanced LIGO's detector is what made this discovery possible, not merely correlated with it: 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics citation, "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves" (Weiss/Barish/Thorne). Initial LIGO (2002-2010) operated with the same basic concept but insufficient sensitivity and completed its program with zero detections; the Advanced LIGO upgrade specifically closed that gap. First real Applied->Basic edge on this graph -- see docs/MASTER_PLAN.md Part IV Item 1 for the admission bar and docs/HISTORICAL_TECH_SCOPING.md Sec 2 for the lineage_only bar both nodes were admitted under.
Connections
No verified edges into the applied tree or elsewhere in Basic yet — never rendered as fabricated, just absent.