Illuminating the Dark Universe with Gravitational Waves
Speaker
Date
Time
Place
Astro-Math Building
Abstract
For centuries, we have explored the Universe and discovered novel astrophysical sources and phenomena through the observation of electromagnetic waves. In 2015, we observed the first gravitational wave passing through the Earth produced by the merger of two black holes. Since then, a few hundred gravitational waves have been detected, including the gravitational signal produced by the coalescence of two neutron stars, accompanied by a plethora of electromagnetic counterparts observed around the world. In this talk, I will highlight the theoretical work underpinning these observations and review the main results in astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics. I will then discuss the discovery potential of future observatories in space and on the ground.
Biography
Alessandra Buonanno is an Italian-American theoretical physicist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam. She is the head of the "Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity" department. She holds a research professorship at the University of Maryland, College Park, and honorary professorships at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the University of Potsdam. She is a leading member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Her many awards include the Dirac Medal, the Oskar Klein Medal, the Galileo Galilei Medal, the Balzan Prize, the Tomalla Prize and the Leibniz Prize. She is an elected member of the Italian National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is currently a co-PI of the ERC Synergy Grant GWSky.