LIGO Seminar

Speaker: Rico (Ka-Lok) Lo

Prospects for observing gravitationally-lensed gravitational-wave transients with second-generation detector networks

With the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detector network in operation, we now routinely detect gravitational-wave (GW) transients such as those from binary black hole mergers at cosmological distances that directly confirm one of the major predictions from general relativity (GR). As another famous prediction from GR, it has already been observed that light will be bent in the presence of a gravitational field, referred to as gravitational lensing. We expect GWs will be lensed in the same way as light, but we have yet to make the first discovery of gravitationally-lensed GW. In this talk, I will give a brief introduction to the gravitational lensing of GW, and talk about the astronomical objects that would be responsible for such lensing phenomena, which greatly affect our strategies to look for lensed GWs. I will also discuss the challenges of identifying lensed GWs with second-generation GW detectors, and how we can gear up ourselves in preparation for the eventual detection.

Zoom link: https://caltech.zoom.us/j/82072539167