Gravitational-wave astrophysics: the next generation

Gravitational-wave astrophysics: the next generation

Pacific
Speaker(s) Salvatore Vitale (MIT)
Video
Description

Please contact erule@berkeley.edu for zoom links.

In this talk I will explore the scientific potential of ground-based next-generation gravitational-wave detectors, such as Cosmic Explorer and Einstein Telescope, which could be online in the 2030s. Whereas current observatories – LIGO and Virgo –  will detect at most hundreds of compact binaries per year, at redshift below ~2, next-generation detectors will discover hundreds of thousands of compact binaries every year, at redshifts as high as ~100. They will thus explore the high-redshift universe and the formation of the first stars and the black holes they left behind in a totally new way, and search for stellar-mass primordial black holes early in the history of the universe.