3:30–4:30 pm ERC 161
Will Farr (Stony Brook University) "Ringing Black Hole Bells and Other Exciting Recent Results in Gravitational Wave Astronomy"
In the past few years, the exciting new field of gravitational wave astronomy has delivered many "firsts." The first detection of gravitational waves---from a pair of black holes merging---in 2015; the first detection of gravitational waves from a merging pair of neutron stars---an event which also produced electromagnetic emission that was ultimately observed in various ways by ~30% of the global astronomical community---in 2017; the first detection of multiple gravitational wave "spectral lines" from a "ringing" black hole announced in 2019; a number of "oddities" in 2020, including unusually massive black hole and neutron star mergers and the first observations of neutron stars merging with black holes; and, finally, the first experimental verification of the black hole area law in 2021. I will discuss some of these exciting results in detail and explain the bright future of this fast-moving new field.
