was the discovery of gravitational waves verified or was it just another experimental mishap?

Question

anonymous · Answer

@Jemurray3 @radar

anonymous · Answer

Do you mean in general, or in a particular experiment?

anonymous · Answer

well the experiment that was published on march 2014

anonymous · Answer

Gravitational waves have been known to exist for a very long time.  The important part of that experiment was to observe the effect of those waves on the Cosmic Microwave Background - allowing us to see back to the period of inflation.

anonymous · Answer

Waves were claimed to have been discovered by the BICEP2 experiment, and it was by design that they were discovered.  There is, however, been a claim made that the scientists made a calculation error, but that has not been confirmed.

anonymous · Answer

was BICEP2 an interferometer...u know the one like LIGO

anonymous · Answer

No, it's not an interferometer. It uses an array (150) of bolometers that are polarization sensitive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolometer

anonymous · Answer

When I said they were discovered, I should have been more explicit and exact and said that their existence was experimentally confirmed.  Technically, there won't be actual confirmation until others or different experiments confirm the BICEP2 findings.

anonymous · Answer

how can gravitational waves be used to study the bigbang