The Awesome Start of Gravitational Wave Astronomy

by Prof. Bernard F Schutz (Cardiff University and Albert Einstein Institute)

Monday 4 Apr 2016, 15:00 → 16:30 Europe/Rome

Gran Sasso Science Institute

Bernard F Schutz
Director, Data Innovation Institute
Cardiff University, Wales,
and
Emeritus Director
Albert Einstein Institute
Potsdam, Germany

"The Awesome Start of Gravitational Wave Astronomy”


Abstract:
When the two LIGO interferometers detected, on 14 September last year, a burst of gravitational waves so strong that there was no doubt that it came from an extraterrestrial source, the new field of gravitational wave astronomy started with a spectacular bang. Spectacular, because the source was the inspiral and merger of two unexpectedly heavy black holes, so that this was not only our first direct detection of gravitational waves, but also our first direct observation of black holes. Spectacular, because the merger event was more luminous at that moment than the entire rest of the Universe added together. Spectacular, because a field that had laboured in quiet obscurity for 40 years suddenly produced the science event of the decade. I will review the science of gravitational waves and their detection, discuss what we have already learned from GW150914, and speculate on what is yet to come from this infant science.