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Caltech

Gravitational-Wave Research Seminar

Tuesday, February 25, 2020
4:00pm to 5:00pm
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Cahill, Hameetman Auditorium
Low frequency gravitational waves
Sarah Vigeland, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee,

Observations have shown that nearly all galaxies harbor massive or supermassive black holes at their centers. Gravitational wave (GW) observations of these black holes will shed light on their growth and evolution, and the merger histories of galaxies. Massive and supermassive black holes are also ideal laboratories for studying strong-field gravity. Pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) use observations of millisecond pulsars to detect low-frequency GWs with frequencies ~1-100 nHz, and can detect GWs emitted by supermassive black hole binaries, which form when two galaxies merge. I will discuss source modeling and detection techniques for PTAs, as well as present limits on nanohertz GWs from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration.

For more information, please contact Jonah Kanner by email at [email protected] or visit CaJAGWR Home Page.