Physics Department Colloquia |
Events During the Week of September 12th through September 19th, 2021
Monday, September 13th, 2021
- No events scheduled
Tuesday, September 14th, 2021
- No events scheduled
Wednesday, September 15th, 2021
- No events scheduled
Thursday, September 16th, 2021
- No events scheduled
Friday, September 17th, 2021
- Supermassive Black Holes and Merging Galaxies: Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Detection with Pulsar Timing Arrays
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 2103 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Sarah Vigeland, UW-Milwaukee
- Abstract: 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. 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. In this talk, I will discuss the current status of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) PTA, with an emphasis on results from our most recent search for the stochastic GW background. I will also discuss future prospects for detecting and characterizing GWs from individual supermassive binary black holes with PTAs.
- Host: Ellen Zweibel