Gravitational and electromagnetic waves are quite similar, as both are fundamental force waves that travel at the speed of light and have no limit to their range, but when it comes to electromagnetism, smaller wavelength means it is more energized (e.g. visible light has less energy than X-Ray), meanwhile with gravitational waves it seems to be the opposite, where bigger waves imply stronger gravity (e.g. GW190521 detected by LIGO and Virgo in 2019), but why is that the case?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
5
-
2$\begingroup$ Do you have a reference where it states this? You may have misunderstood the paper. $\endgroup$– TriatticusCommented May 24 at 13:44
-
3$\begingroup$ Are you thinking that more energetic wave come from bigger black holes? Bigger black holes spiral in more slowly, causing lower wavelengths. $\endgroup$– mmesser314Commented May 24 at 13:55
-
$\begingroup$ @Triatticus If I have misunderstood this, and it is indeed that "more energy -> stronger gravity & smaller gravitational wave", then would that imply that elementary particles produce very big, weak gravitational waves then, since moving objects with mass would, in theory, produce GW. $\endgroup$– Quantum WonderCommented May 24 at 15:00
-
$\begingroup$ This question was answered here: physics.stackexchange.com/q/9457/390027 $\endgroup$– Dakota WhartonCommented May 24 at 15:10
-
$\begingroup$ No what I mean is that all the mergers and gravitational waves detected haven't had a definite frequency, but also that energy can be delivered in terms of the amplitude of a wave. Any source can emit gravitational waves which has a nonzero rate of change for it's gravitational quadrupole moment. $\endgroup$– TriatticusCommented May 24 at 15:23
Add a comment
|