More live streams from the WAVE networkStudying Gravitational Waves with Taylor, Justin, and the Scorpions

4 September 2024, by Newsroom editorial office

Photo: Barclays Arena

Several concerts have already provided researchers with basic information. There will be more measurements of large music events in Barclays Arena.

At the end of July, roughly 800 people simultaneously followed seismic waves per live stream generated by a Taylor Swift concert in Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion. The recording provided the WAVE research team with important findings and recordings of the Justin Timberlake and Scorpions’ concerts followed.

The waves were measurable along the entire length of the tunnel of the European XFEL, which ends in Schenefeld more than 3 meters away from the Volksparkstadion. The measurements were taken during the songs “Love Story” and “Shake It Off” at the Taylor Swift concert in July. And the 19 km glass fiber network in Science City Hamburg-Bahrenfeld, which uses the WAVE research network as a seismic sensor, as well as the PETRA III accelerator at DESY provided extensive recorded data throughout the entire concert. The measurements were broadcast via live stream.

This was not done simply to entertain fans. “Naturally, it’s a great opportunity to make our research accessible to a larger public and to show how dynamic it is underground,” said Prof. Dr Céline Hadziioannou, professor of seismology at the University of Hamburg. The results, however, also concretely helped researchers. “The songs generated different seismic signals. This helps us understand, for example, how they were generated, meaning by the bass in the music or by the fans jumping up and down,” said Prof. Dr. Katharina-Sophie Isleif, professor of measurement technology at the Helmut-Schmidt-Universität and member of the Cluster of Excellence Quantum Universe at the University of Hamburg.

Improving measuring instruments and understanding the movements of waves

And the routes that waves take from the places they are generated are also very telling. This is why various events are recorded. After Taylor Swift, the research team recorded the singer Robbie Williams and the band Deichkind at their concerts at the Trabrennbahn via livestream. Then, on 4 September, it was Justin Timberlake’s and on 13 September the Scorpions’ turns, both in the Barclays Arena. Several home soccer games played, for example, by the HSV, and even major storms contribute to the analyses.

The findings can further refine and improve the measuring network. Furthermore, understanding waves and how they spread can help us better ascertain things like changes in the temperature or underground moisture in the future. This makes it possible to say something about the influence of climate change on the city. Moreover, the findings are important for the research on gravitational waves being conducted in, among other places, Quantum Universe.

Because experiments on detecting these cosmic signals are extremely sensitive to any and every kind of vibration, it is essential to precisely measure and predict possible disruptive waves. Seismic networks like WAVE should help to reduce this so-called Newtonian Noise. “With these concerts, we are effectively training ourselves and the network to facilitate pioneering physical discoveries,” said Prof. Dr. Oliver Gerberding, professor of gravitational wave detection at the University of Hamburg.

Interdisciplinary cooperation

WAVE is coordinated by Hadziioannou and Gerberding from the University of Hamburg, Isleif from the Helmut-Schmidt-Universität, and Dr. Holger Schlarb from DESY. Researchers at the European XFEL and the GFZ German Centre for Geosciences Potsdam. The live streams are available on the network’s page.