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Old 24-10-2017, 10:56 PM
torsion (Bram)
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Canberra
Posts: 88
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shiraz View Post
I guess that the delay should tell some interesting stuff about the intergalactic medium - being able to measure a 2 second effect after a 130,000,000 year process is pretty amazing.
Well, with this delay and the source distance (obtained from the GW detection) one can determine that the speed of gravitational waves and the speed of light are the same to about 1e-15, which show that the intergalactic medium dispersion has negligible effects on the photons [1]. E.g. the speed of gravitational waves and the speed of light are pretty much the same.

cheers,
Bram

[1] http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...41-8213/aa920c
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