Start Date: | 5/10/2018 | Start Time: | 3:30 PM |
End Date: | 5/10/2018 | End Time: | 4:30 PM |
|
Event Description Matthew Benacquista, PhD, NSF
The existence of massive stellar-mass black hole
binaries has been confirmed by the recent LIGO detections of their inspiral and merger. An estimate of the number of longer-period binaries that are precursors to the merging systems can be inferred from the observed event-rate. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a space-based gravitational wave detector that will be sensitive to the low-frequency gravitational waves from this precursor population at distances of up to 20 Mpc. I will provide a brief introduction to gravitational wave astronomy and discuss how the long-period binary black hole population can be used to obtain an independent measurement of the distances to galaxies in the Virgo cluster. |
|
Location: Disque Hall, Room 919, 32 South 32nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 |
Audience: Undergraduate StudentsGraduate StudentsFaculty |
|