New Scientist: LIGO gravitational waves discovery in grave doubt

image of gravitational waves/Henze, NASA

The 2015 find may have been an illusion:

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory collaboration, better known as LIGO, switched on its upgraded detectors on 12 September 2015. Within 48 hours, it had made its first detection. It took a few months before the researchers were confident enough in the signal to announce a discovery. Headlines around the world soon heralded one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the past century. In 2017, a Nobel prize followed. Five other waves have since been spotted.

Or have they? That’s the question asked by a group of physicists who have done their own analysis of the data. “We believe that LIGO has failed to make a convincing case for the detection of any gravitational wave event,” says Andrew Jackson, the group’s spokesperson. According to them, the breakthrough was nothing of the sort: it was all an illusion.Michael Brooks, “Exclusive: Grave doubts over LIGO’s discovery of gravitational waves” at New Scientist (paywall)

Was it just another PC moment in science?

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See also: Rob Sheldon on Physics Nobel for gravitational waves: Another PC moment in science?

Well, physics probably HAS gone off the rails if NBC is reporting it (Sabine Hossenfelder)

At Nature: How gravitational waves might help explain fundamental cosmology. But do they exist?

Rob Sheldon on Physics Nobel for gravitational waves: Another PC moment in science?

At Forbes: Gravitational waves detection was all just noise, some researchers say

At Forbes: Gravitational waves detection was all just noise, some researchers say

and

BICEP2: The day the multiverse turned to dust – and so did someone’s Nobel, as a result

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