London. The collaboration between LIGO-VIRGO, an international team of scientists and engineers which includes a research group from Padova INFN and the Physics and Astronomy Department was awarded the important “Special Breakthrough Prize in Physics 2016”. This prestigious award was given for the recent work that has led, 100 years after the publication of the general theory of relativity by Einstein, to the first direct experimental observation of gravitational waves. In the past, the award has also gone to the discovery of the Higgs Boson. It is shared between members of the research team that contributed to the breathroughs in physics. The LIGO-VIRGO collaboration involves the exchange of technological solutions, coordination of research activities, data collection campaigns and the joint analysis of the original data. The Padova group is involved in the analysis group and in the development of laser sources to be implemented in future versions of the interferometer VIRGO in Pisa, sister of the experiments that have “seen” the waves first. (9colonne)
