First Gulf Coast Gravity Conference

The first Gulf Coast Gravity Conference will be hosted by the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, at The University of Texas at Brownsville, on February 11th and 12th, 2005. The pattern will follow that of other regional meetings: equal time for every speaker; no registration fee, but there will also be no financial aid available for any of the participants; great informality. All interested researchers and students in all areas of gravitational physics are invited to attend and contribute talks. We expect to have a TGG-sponsored award for the best student presentation. The duration of the talks will be approximately 15 minutes, although the exact time will depend on the number of participants. Please submit your title/speaker/affiliation to Carlos Lousto by February 1st. (Conference webpage).

Gr-qc watch: Mission design for LISA Pathfinder

Landgraf, Hechler, and Kemble have posted their Lisa Symposium proceeding on Mission design for LISA Pathfinder [gr-qc/0411071].

Gr-qc watch: The LISA Phase Measurement System Project

Summers and Hoyland have posted a paper on their Results for the LISA Phase Measurement System Project [gr-qc/0411010].

Gr-qc watch: Probing anisotropies of GW backgrounds with a space-based interferometer

Kudoh and Taruya have posted a paper on Probing anisotropies of gravitational-wave backgrounds with a space-based interferometer: geometric properties of antenna patterns and their angular power [gr-qc/0411017].

Gr-qc watch: Trento group on Improved Torsion Pendulum

The Trento group has posted their MGX proceeding discussing their Improved Torsion Pendulum for Ground Testing of LISA Displacement Sensors [gr-qc/0411049].

Second black hole found at the centre of our Galaxy

Links: Astronomy and Astrophysics 423, 155 (2004), Nature news item

A second black hole lurks at the centre of our Galaxy, according to astronomers who have watched a cluster of stars spinning around it. [...] Jean-Pierre Maillard, an astronomer from the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris, France, led a team that looked at a very bright area of the galactic core called IRS 13, previously thought by astronomers to be a single object. Using infrared observations from the Gemini Observatory at the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, they discovered that IRS 13 is in fact a rotating cluster of seven stars, just 0.065 light years across. Adding data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, they calculated from the movement of the seven stars that they must be orbiting an intermediate-mass black hole, called IRS 13E, which spirals around Sagittarius A* at about 280 kilometres per second.

8th Eastern Gravity Meeting

The 8th Eastern Gravity Meeting will be held at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC on Friday and Saturday, March 18 and 19, 2005. In the tradition of the Regional Relativity Meetings in the US, this will be an open and informal meeting. All interested researchers and students in all areas of gravitational physics are invited to attend and contribute talks. The duration of the talks will be approximately 15 minutes, although the exact time will depend on the number of participants. As a regional meeting, many participants will be from the Eastern Time Zone, but all are welcome. As at past meetings, there will be no registration fee, but there will also be no financial aid available for any of the participants.

In addition to the usual regional conference, we are also celebrating the 2005 World Year of Physics by hosting two talks by Clifford Will on Thursday, March 17. Professor Will will present a Physics Department Colloquium at 4pm on Thursday followed that evening by a public lecture at 8pm titled "Was Einstein Right?" These events were timed specifically to coincide with EGM8, and we hope that those attending the meeting on Friday will be able to arrive early enough on Thursday to attend. Everyone planning to attend EGM8 is invited to attend either or both events on Thursday.

Online registration is available on the official conference web page, http://www.wfu.edu/~cookgb/EGM8/. This site will also provide updated information on travel and accommodations.