12:00–1:00 pm ERC 401
Katie Breivik, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, "Binary evolution: a multi-messenger, multi-band puzzle"
Host: Daniel Baxter
Recent observations of binary black hole and binary neutron star mergers have ignited interest in the formation and evolution of compact-object binary systems. However, by the time a compact-object binary merges and produces gravitational-wave/electromagnetic signals we can observe, much of the evolutionary history of the stellar progenitors is washed away. By combining binary population synthesis simulations with observations, we can constrain the uncertain processes that govern the evolution of binary stars from zero age main sequence through to compact object formation and merger. In this talk I will introduce a community developed population synthesis code: COSMIC and highlight recent work on how we can combine binary population simulations with future observations from the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and Gaia to constrain the formation of compact-object binaries.