ligo-comprehensive/title.tex

\newcommand{\HRule}{\rule{\linewidth}{0.5mm}}
\begin{titlepage}

\begin{center}


% Upper part of the page
\includegraphics[width=0.35\textwidth]{figures/gw_cover_image.png}\\[1cm]

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

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


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

\HRule\ \\[0.5cm]

% Author and supervisor
\begin{minipage}[b][3cm][t]{0.55\textwidth}
  \begin{flushleft} \large
    \emph{Author:}\\[0.2cm]
    \quad Caleb \textsc{Fangmeier}
  \end{flushleft}
  \vfill
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}[b][3cm][t]{0.4\textwidth}
  \begin{flushleft} \large
    \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} \\
  \end{flushleft}
\end{minipage}
\\[1.0cm]

\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.
\end{abstract}
\vfill

% Bottom of the page
{\large \today}

\end{center}

\newpage
\tableofcontents


\end{titlepage}