Thursday, Nov 22, 2012, 16:00
WHGA/001
O. Jennrich, ESA
Abstract:
The direct detection of gravitational waves is one of the most
challenging issues in today's astronomy. A number of efforts are
underway aimed at extremely low frequencies (timescales of 10^9 seconds,
with pulsar timing arrays), low frequencies (timescales of minutes to
days, through space-borne gravitational wave detectors) and acoustic
frequencies (through ground based detectors). Low-frequency
gravitational waves are emitted by a number of astrophysical sources,
such as coalescing massive black hole binaries at the center of merging
galaxies, the inspiral of compact objects such as neutron stars into a
massive black hole or binary systems consisting of compact objects.
Along with the large number of source goes a rich scientific content
from the formation of the earliest structures in the universe to the
formation of our galaxy to the astrophysics of compact binary systems,
precision tests of strong-field gravity, and measurements of dark
energy.