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\textsc{\LARGE University of Nebraska \-- Lincoln}\\[0.2cm]
\textit{\Large Physics \& Astronomy}\\[0.5cm]

\textsc{\Large Comprehensive Examination}\\[0.5cm]


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{\huge \bfseries The Observation of Gravity waves at LIGO}\\[0.4cm]

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    \emph{Author:}\\[0.2cm]
    \quad Caleb \textsc{Fangmeier}
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    \emph{Supervisory Committee:} \\[0.2cm]
    \quad Dr.~Gregory \textsc{Snow} (Chair) \\
    \quad Dr.~Christian \textsc{Binek} \\
    \quad Dr.~Daniel \textsc{Claes} \\
    \quad Dr.~Sebastian \textsc{Elbaum} \\
    \quad Dr.~Ilya \textsc{Kravchenko} \\
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\begin{abstract}
  On September 14, 2015 09:50:45 UTC, the first direct observation of a gravitational wave was made by the Advanced LIGO experiment. The event, deemed GW150914\cite{GW150914}, was determined to be caused by the inspiral and subsequent merger of two stellar-mass black holes. Subsequently, on December 26, 2015 03:38:53 UTC another black hole merger event was observed\cite{GW151226}. These two observations confirm the predictions of general relativity in the highly non-linear strong field regime as well as cosmological predictions of the existence of binary black hole systems. Here I discuss the theoretical mechanisms enabling the observation of gravitational waves, the design of the Advanced LIGO detector, the extraction of events from data, and the implications to various cosmological models.
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