Gravitational Waves, Neutrinos and Photons; Comprehensive

by Szabolcs Márka (Columbia University in the City of New York)

Thursday 16 Sept 2010, 15:15 → 16:15 Europe/Stockholm

Oscar Klein auditorium

Sources of gravitational waves are often expected to be observable through several messengers, such as gamma-rays, X-rays, optical, radio, and/or neutrino emission. Some of these channels are already being used in multimessenger searches for gravitational waves with the LIGO-GEO600-Virgo interferometer network, and others are currently being incorporated into new searches.

Astrophysical targets include gamma-ray bursts, soft-gamma repeaters, supernovae, and glitching pulsars. The simultaneous observation of neutrino or electromagnetic emission could be a crucial aspect for the first direct detection of gravitational waves. Information on the progenitor, such as trigger time, direction and expected frequency range, can enhance our ability to identify gravitational wave signatures with amplitudes close to the noise floor of the detector. Furthermore, combining gravitational waves with electromagnetic and neutrino observations will enable the extraction of scientific insight that was hidden from us before.

I will discuss the status of detection efforts with the LIGO-GEO600-Virgo network as well as the science goals and outlook for second and third generation gravitational wave detectors.

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