November Meeting CANCELLED

TOPIC: "Low Frequency Gravitational Waves: A New View of the Universe"

SPEAKER: J. Andrew Casey-Clyde, University of Connecticut Storrs, CT Graduate Assistant

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. First observed by LIGO in 2015, these waves can be generated by massive objects, such as black holes, orbiting each other in a binary system. Recently the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) reported the first strong evidence of low frequency gravitational waves from supermassive black hole binaries — our first glimpse of gravitational waves from binaries that are billions of times more massive than those seen by LIGO.

In this talk Andrew Casey-Clyde will teach us about the low frequency gravitational wave universe, which astronomers have now seen for the first time. First we will learn what a supermassive black hole is and how they can form binary systems. Andrew will then discuss the types of gravitational wave signals these binaries generate and how experiments like NANOGrav detect these low frequency gravitational waves. He will then explain what this new window on the gravitational wave universe can teach us about supermassive black hole binaries and the galaxies that host them. Finally he will conclude by discussing future prospects for low-frequency gravitational wave astronomy and the types of measurements we expect to make in the next few years.
 

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 Date: Saturday, 11/4/2023