The Formation of Massive Black-Hole and Neutron-Star Binaries: Understanding the Advanced LIGO Detections

Philipp Podsiadlowski (University of Oxford) - 20.11.17

Abstract:

More than a year ago, the Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) gravitational-wave detector reported the discovery of the first direct detection of gravitational waves confirming Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity in its extreme limit. In this talk I will first discuss the importance of gravitational waves for fundamental physics and the main sources aLIGO is expected to detect. I will first focus on the discoveries over the last year, where the gravitational waves were caused by the merging of two massive stellar-mass black holes. I will outline some of the astrophysical channels by which such systems can form and provide an outlook for what can be expected once aLIGo has achieved its design sensitivity. I will then discuss the recently announced merger of two neutron stars, one of the primary objectives of the aLIGO mission, which was also seen as a gamma-ray burst and kilonova, and its implications for the rates of such events (including those of short-duration gamma-ray bursts) and fundamental physics, in particular, the origin of r-process elements such as gold and platinum.