IIT Roorkee researchers help discover gravitational waves causing 'humming' of universe

NEW DELHI: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee have contributed to the discovery of ultra-low frequency gravitational waves causing “humming” of the universe by Indian, Japanese and European astronomers. The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) facility, PARAM Ganga, installed at the institute was used in the findings. IIT Roorkee professor P Arumugam and his senior PhD student, Jaikhomba Singha are a part of the findings.

Talking about the discovery, the institute said that the waves are expected to be originating from huge dancing black holes. “Such dancing monster Black Hole pairs, expected to lurk in the centers of colliding galaxies, create ripples in the fabric of space-time, which the astronomers call nano-hertz gravitational waves. The relentless cacophony of gravitational waves from a large number of supermassive black hole pairs create a persistent humming of our universe,” IIT Roorkee explained.

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A team comprising members of the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) and Indian Pulsar Timing Array (InPTA) consortia, published their results. The InPTA experiment involved researchers from various institutions including IIT Roorkee.

“These results have culminated due to years of efforts of many scientists, including early career researchers and undergraduate students. I am very grateful that IIT Roorkee has been able to constantly contribute in various ways in achieving these results. The NSM facility, PARAM Ganga, installed at IIT Roorkee, among various other facilities, has played a crucial role in this global effort. I hope IIT Roorkee will continue to support the various efforts of this stellar collaboration,” Arumugam said.

Singha said, “This is an extremely exciting time for early career researchers. We are in an era where an international team of researchers across the globe are all collaborating and trying to listen to the humming of our universe. The present results will open a plethora of exhilarating science for us in future."

Professor K K Pant, director of IIT Roorkee, said, “Congratulations to the InPTA team and our esteemed researchers from IIT Roorkee for their remarkable findings and impactful research. I am delighted to learn about the utilization of IIT Roorkee's cutting-edge facilities, such as PARAM Ganga, in this endeavor. This achievement exemplifies the power of international collaborations in attaining greater scientific goals and significantly contributing to our understanding of the universe.”