12:00–1:00 pm Zoom Room
Brittany Kamai, University of California Santa Cruz and Caltech, "Envisioning and Creating the Future of Gravitational-wave Astrophysics"
We are living in an astrophysics transformation because decades ago technologists started to design and build our future. They figured out that we could convert the dynamic motion of space-time into a detectable signal and developed technology to create the Advanced Gravitational-wave detector network. In the last five years, we swiftly moved from the first-ever direct detection into catalogs of 10s of new sources. These observations enable direct measurements of General Relativity's robustness, independent cosmological tracers, and how we understand the environments stars live and die. We are starting to see a glimmer of what is on our horizon. In this presentation, I will discuss how we are designing the future of gravitational wave astrophysics to ensure the field's longevity. I will share where we are within the generations of gravitational wave detector development, including the next ambitious project, Cosmic Explorer. I will describe how I am bringing the world of metamaterials into gravitational wave instrumentation and the potential for improving our detector’s sensitivity.
