"Listening to the Universe with Lasers" will be presented by Madeline Wade, assistant professor of physics at Kenyon College.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20 4:35PM TO 5:45PM
WRIGHT LABORATORY OF PHYSICS, WRIGHT LECTURE HALL, W201
Abstract: The Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (aLIGO) has been making groundbreaking discoveries since the moment it turned on in 2015. The LIGO and Virgo Scientific Collaborations have published results for 11 total gravitational wave detections. They have detected gravitational waves from ten merging black hole systems and one merging neutron star system.
In this talk, Prof. Wade will give an overview of gravitational-wave physics, the LIGO detectors, and give highlights of current discoveries.
Background reading: Bassan, Massimo, editor. Advanced Interferometers and the Search for Gravitational Waves : Lectures from the First VESF School on Advanced Detectors for Gravitational Waves. 2014, e-book accessible from Springer on the OhioLINK Electronic Book Center.
