Virtual Interaction with Gravitational Waves to Observe Relativity (VIGOR)

The discovery of gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration has captured the public imagination, but it can be challenging for non-scientists to visualize the effects of GWs and how they depend on the properties of their compact-binary sources. We have developed Virtual Interaction with Gravitational waves to Observe Relativity (VIGOR), an interactive simulation of binary black holes (BBHs) and the GWs they emit. Users can manipulate the BBH total mass, mass ratio, and orbital separation, then observe how these changes affect the amplitude, frequency, and polarization of the emitted GWs through the tidal distortion these waves induce in a test mass located at variable distance and orientation with respect to the BBHs. This provides significant insight into the tensorial nature of GWs and the connection between GW emission and detection. VIGOR was developed using the Unity video-game engine, providing high-quality 3D graphics and portability across a wide range of computing platforms. It was exhibited pre-pandemic at the Women in Physics summer camps at the University of Texas at Dallas and is now freely available to the public at https://vigor.utdallas.edu.