LIGO Seminar

The first observing run with an early configuration of the Advanced LIGO detectors was a tremendous success, improving volume sensitivity to compact binary mergers in the local universe by nearly a factor of 100 (compared to Initial LIGO), and providing the first two detections of a transient gravitational wave signal in the process. Since both GW150914 and GW151226 were caused by the merger of two stellar-mass black holes, no electromagnetic counterpart was expected for either event; however, a flurry of high-energy, optical, and radio observations were still
conducted by astronomer partners both around the world and in space. In this talk I will contextualize the technical achievement that these observations represent when taken together, discussing both their direct astrophysical implications and the broader impact of doing science with multiple bandpasses on multiple messengers. Finally, I report on preparations for multimessenger astronomy in the impending second observing run.

We plan to broadcast these talks using TeamSpeak. Use a sub-channel of LIGO Lab called "LIGO Seminar," which is not password protected.

NOTE: These and all other scheduled LIGO seminars are listed on the LIGO Laboratory seminar calendar for convenient reference.