Is there evidence to support the existence of gravity waves?

[jobyts]

Do we have evidence to support gravity is a wave (like the interference pattern for em wave)?

Do we have evidence to support the gravity waves travel at the same speed of em waves?

 

[cjameshuff]

Do we have evidence to support gravity is a wave (like the interference pattern for em wave)?

Gravity isn't thought to be a wave. Gravitational waves are to gravity as electromagnetic waves are to electromagnetism. A mass just gravitates, you need an accelerating mass to get radiation.

There is evidence of gravitational radiation. In particular, some pulsar systems have large massive objects in close orbits, and we can accurately measure the orbital decay, and find it to be consistent with radiation of orbital energy as gravitational waves.

Do we have evidence to support the gravity waves travel at the same speed of em waves?

Some low-confidence measurements. We're more confident that gravitational radiation travels no faster than c, for the same reasons nothing else can go faster than c, and there's no reason to expect it to go slower.

Don't get impatient with the lack of detections. Gravitational radiation is expected to be hard to detect, and we're still inching toward instruments with the sensitivity we expect to be necessary.

 

[tom.stoer]

Mathematically the speed c follows from the structure of Einstein equations (just as for the Maxwell equations).

 

[JDługosz]

Do we have evidence to support gravity is a wave (like the interference pattern for em wave)?

If you quantize a continuous field, "particles" pop out of the math. There are quasi-particles such as electron density surface waves. So gravity would behave this way on a very small scale, even if gravitons are not "real" in the same sense as electrons. They would still be "real" in the same sense as phonons!

Do we have evidence to support the gravity waves travel at the same speed of em waves?

Yes and no. Gravity behaves exactly as predicted to very high precision (see Gravity Probe B, for example). If the speed of propagation of the disturbance was wrong, the details of frame-dragging and the gravito-magnetic effect would not pan out the same. Direct measurement of a gravitational wave (distortion of space-time) has never been made. The difficult part is is that the laws of GR conspire so that the direction of force is to where the object is now, not where you see it due to propagation delay. So navigating a spacecraft around Jupiter or Saturn to bounce around from moon to moon, with awesome precision, means that the understanding of gravity is pretty keen; however, the experience does not give a direct speed measurement of gravity (it seems to be instantaneous), but, the fact that it does seem that way means that the rules causing it are understood to high precision? Got it?

 

[pmacias]

Yes, there is strong evidence to support the existence of gravity waves. In 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves for the first time, confirming a prediction made by Albert Einstein in his theory of general relativity. This detection was made through the observation of the interference pattern of gravitational waves as they passed through Earth.

Additionally, the observation of binary neutron star mergers by LIGO and Virgo in 2017 provided further evidence for the existence of gravitational waves. The detection of these waves also provided valuable information about the speed at which they travel, which has been found to be consistent with the speed of electromagnetic waves.

Furthermore, the existence of gravitational waves is supported by a wide range of other observations and experiments, such as the timing of pulsars and the behavior of objects in orbit around massive bodies.

In summary, there is strong evidence to support the existence of gravitational waves, and their properties, such as speed, have been found to be consistent with those of electromagnetic waves. This provides further support for the idea that gravity is a wave phenomenon.