Justin, you are right, as reportet here:

 

"It would perhaps be the greatest achievement in the understanding of our Universe, that we at Planck would be able to measure the gravitational waves of the Universe, which are directly linked to the Big Bang and cosmic inflation (the extremely rapid expansion of the Universe in the very first moments)", ...

I am not sure what you mean with "decay". Like electromagnetic waves gravitational waves too get redshiftet while the universe expands.

 

DrRocket, the strongest signals are expected from the merger of massive objects, neutron stars, black holes. Unfortunately such events are rather seldom.

I am not sure what you mean with "decay". Like electromagnetic waves gravitational waves too get redshiftet while the universe expands.

Here's a wiki explaining it.

Edited December 25, 201114 yr by StringJunky

name='StringJunky' timestamp='1324853508' post='646948']

Here's a wiki explaining it.

Misunderstanding. Here Wiki explains 'orbit decay', Justin's question however was "do gravitational waves decay over time?" in the context of primordial black holes. There aren't even massive bodies whose orbit could decay.

Edited December 26, 201114 yr by guenter

Misunderstanding. Here Wiki explains 'orbit decay', Justin's question however was "do gravitational waves decay over time?" in the context of primordial black holes. There aren't even massive bodies whose orbit could decay.

 

OK...my apologies. I was connecting with Dr Rocket's post about binary stars.

Sorry guenter,

 

I was away for awhile. I didn't necessarily mean decay. I was wondering if the wave was somehow less effective over time. Therefore being less detectable.

I didn't necessarily mean decay. I was wondering if the wave was somehow less effective over time. Therefore being less detectable.

Justin, interestingly there are two possibilities. In both cases the scientists in this research are relatively optimistic:

 

Primordial gravitational waves can in principle be detected as a signature in the microwave background (ongoing research of Planck) or as radiation reaching us today by interferometer techniques, e.g. LIGO ect.

 

The microwave photons have been emitted 380000 years after the big bang (before the universe wasn't transparent for them), primordial gravitational waves however were created very shortly after the big bang (for them the universe is transparent), thus providing hopefully direct information about the early universe.

Thanks for the explanation guenter.