Joseph Weber

Joseph Weber (1919–2000) was an American physicist who pioneered experiments to detect gravitational waves using resonant aluminum bars.

Weber bar: A massive resonant metal cylinder designed to vibrate when a gravitational wave passes through it. Weber built these detectors to convert a passing wave into measurable vibrations.
Weber controversy: The scientific dispute over Joseph Weber’s reports of gravitational-wave detections in the late 1960s and 1970s. Other groups could not reproduce the event rates Weber reported.
University of Maryland, College Park: A public research university in College Park, Maryland, where Weber taught physics for much of his career. Weber developed and ran his gravitational-wave program there.
Laser interferometer: An instrument that measures changes in distance by comparing the phases of light traveling along different paths. Interferometers measure passing waves differently from Weber’s resonant bars.
Gravitational wave: A ripple in spacetime produced by accelerating masses and propagating outward at the speed of light. Weber’s experiments sought to register these ripples through their effects on matter.
Gravitational-wave astronomy: The study of the universe using gravitational waves as astronomical signals. Weber’s experiments helped establish the pursuit despite their disputed detections.
Manhattan Project: The United States-led wartime program that developed the first nuclear weapons. Weber worked on the project before returning to an academic physics career.
Cryogenic resonant-mass detector: A cooled massive body used to detect gravitational waves through resonant vibrations. Later bar detectors reduced thermal noise that limited Weber’s room-temperature apparatus.
Resonance: A strong increase in a system’s response when it is driven near one of its natural frequencies. Weber tuned his bars to respond to gravitational waves at their resonant frequency.
LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, a pair of facilities that detect gravitational waves with laser interferometers. LIGO’s later detections used a different technology and confirmed gravitational waves directly.

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