Astronomy & Astrophysics Seminar: Gravitational Waves from Merging Black Holes as a Probe of Astrophysics and Cosmology

Abstract: 

The recent detection of gravitational waves from the coalescence of binary black holes (BBHs) has ushered in a new era in astronomy. Expecting thousands of merging BBH detections over the next decade, we will show that these measurements will provide unique and powerful probes of astrophysics and cosmology. We will investigate how the black hole mass function can be inferred from this data, shedding light on important questions in stellar physics such as the existence of a mass gap between remnant neutron stars and black holes, and the efficiency of wind-driven mass loss in the Wolf-Rayet phase. We will then demonstrate that measurements of the two-dimensional mass distribution of binary black holes, traces of their orbital eccentricity, the degree of spin-alignment and the angular clustering of the event locations can be used to distinguish between possible binary progenitor scenarios and offer insight into models of galaxy evolution and star formation history. Finally, we will discuss how the synergy between future ground-based and space-borne gravitational-wave observatories stands to vastly increase the efficiency of these methods.

Seminar Organizer: Prof. Sara Beck