ASPIRE GW

Japanese-Australian Gravitational Wave Collaboration

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UWA’s 10-Year GW Celebration

The UWA group celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the discovery of gravitational waves with a vibrant event. Professors, postdocs, and students gave short talks highlighting how their research connects to the broader field of gravitational-wave science, underscoring the lasting impact of this milestone discovery.

The academic program was followed by a lively celebration with pizza, drinks, cakes, and fireworks, bringing everyone together in a festive atmosphere. Haoyu was delighted to join this memorable occasion during his stay in Perth.

10-year anniversary of GW discovery

September 14, 2025 is the 10th anniversary of the first discovery of gravitational waves. The first event was a black hole binary merger named GW150914. It has been the highest signal-to-noise ratio event for long time. This year, another BH merger GW250114 recorded the highest signal-to-noise ratio (see the figure; credit by LIGO/J. Tissino (GSSI)/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)).

There are anniversary events in many institutes including Swinburne or UWA here in Australia. Since the 14th was Sunday, the events are held a few days later.

BBQ in Gingin

The Gingin 80-meter interferometer, located about an hour’s drive from Perth, is currently being developed by the UWA team into a high-power cryogenic silicon detector. Recently, Fujita-sensei and his students visited the site. As Gingin is quite remote, it’s a welcoming tradition to share a BBQ with visitors, making each visit both productive and enjoyable.

Prof. Fujita’s Visit to UWA

Prof. Tomohiro Fujita from Ochanomizu University visited UWA with three of his students following their stay at ANU. During their time in Perth, they exchanged research ideas with the UWA group and toured the laboratory. A highlight of the visit was Prof. Fujita’s seminar on the intriguing question “Is Gravity Quantum?” The talk drew one of the largest audiences in the Department of Physics in recent years and generated lively discussions among attendees.

Haoyu is visiting Australia for three months

Haoyu is back in Perth! He’ll be spending the next 2.5 months at UWA working on the characterization of silicon mirrors with crystalline coatings. After that, he’s heading to ANU for a week-long visit before joining the annual OzGrav Retreat in Melbourne.

Quantum Teleportation

Quantum teleportation experiment at ANU has started with Dr. Aritomi from Univ of Tokyo and Dr. Page from NAOJ. They will work with Ryo at Science Tokyo and Terry at ANU to demonstrate the quantum-teleportation-based frequency dependent squeezing generation.

Outreach seminar

We invited Jackie and Diana to Science Tokyo and had a 2-hour seminar on Australian education and outreach. Their outreaching target is not only high school kids but younger kids. They use VR and LEGO. They have so-called Outreach Ambassadors who are early-career researchers (ECRs) helping outreach activities for 6 months or so to obtain certificate.

Jackie and Diana in KAGRA

Jackie and Diana from Swinburne Univ came to Japan and attended the KAGRA face-to-face meeting. On the second day, we had a chance to visit KAGRA site. It is now being stopped for replacing the laser, but the sensitivity has been improved lately. We hope to see a gravitational wave soon.

Discussion with Levin

Yuri Levin, a former OzGrav researcher currently in Columbia Univ, visited me at ANU. We had a very fruitful discussion about thermal noise.
I invited him to Japan about 10 years ago and he still remembers the stay as a good memory, especially his visits to Sumo wrestling and to a tea ceremony.