Unveiling the Universe with Gravitational-Wave Observations
ABSTRACT :
LIGO and Virgo have made phenomenal new discoveries that are already making waves in a range of fields from fundamental physics to cosmology. This talk will highlight the science impact of the discoveries so far and the potential of future detectors. Planned upgrades of LIGO and Virgo will discover events from new corners of the parameter space. The next generation of ground-based detectors will observe coalescences of black holes and neutron stars throughout the cosmos, thousands of them with exceptional fidelity. This talk will also discuss how such observatories would make it possible to address unsolved problems in numerous areas of physics and astronomy, from Cosmology to Beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, and how they could provide insights into workings of strongly gravitating systems, astrophysics of compact objects and the nature of dense matter. It is inevitable that observatories of such depth and finesse will make new discoveries inaccessible to other windows of observation.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
For over three decades Sathyaprakash’s research has focused on the sources of gravitational waves and optimal algorithms for their detection. His algorithms are used in the detection of merging binary black holes and neutron stars by LIGO and Virgo. He has also worked on exploiting gravitational-wave observations to infer the equation of state of supra-dense nuclear matter in neutron star cores, measure the dark energy and dark matter content of the Universe, and test general relativity in ultra-strong gravitational fields. He has led the development of the science case for LIGO-India, Cosmic Explorer and Einstein Telescope. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of IIT Madras, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Institute of Physics London, Royal Astronomical Society and International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. He is a recipient of the Royal Society Leverhulme Fellowship and Buchalter prize in Cosmology.