Gravitational-Wave Research Seminar

Discovery of pulsars opened a new era for testing strong gravity and heralded the field of Gravitational Astronomy. The field will get a makeover when advanced gravitational wave detectors begin to operate later this year, coinciding with the centenary celebrations of General Theory of Relativity.  In this talk I will discuss opportunities provided by gravitational wave observations in probing fundamental physics, astrophysics and cosmology and the challenges that must be overcome in achieving those goals. In particular, I will focus on four topical areas of research: (1) EM follow-up of binary mergers before coalescence, (2) measuring the equation-of-state of neutron stars, (3) testing general relativity and its alternatives and (4) probing the geometry and dynamics of the Universe on very large scales.