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Since the first detection of gravitational waves from a binary black-hole merger in 2015, the LIGO and Virgo detectors have observed nearly 100 gravitational-wave signals from mergers of black holes, neutron stars and their mixture. These observations rely on precise theoretical predictions of the relativistic two-body dynamics and gravitational radiation. After reviewing the synergistic approach that successfully combines analytical and numerical relativity to produce accurate waveform models, I will discuss the astrophysical and fundamental physics properties that those models have allowed us to extract from gravitational-wave observations, and highlight the theoretical challenges that lie ahead to fully exploit the discovery potential of increasingly sensitive detectors on the ground, such as Cosmic Explorer and Einstein Telescope, and in space, such as LISA.
The lecture is sponsored by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences through its Nobel Institute for Physics, and by Stockholm University.
About the Speaker:
Prof. Buonanno is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute). She studied theoretical physics in Pisa, and held faculty positions in Paris and at the University of Maryland. She is a Principal Investigator of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and a member of the LISA Consortium Board. For her contributions to LIGO and Virgo discoveries, she was awarded the 2018 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz prize – the most prestigious research prize in Germany. In 2021 she was co-awarded the Galileo Galilei Medal, the Dirac Medal and the Balzan Prize, and soon after, the 2022 Tomalla Prize. She is an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, of the US National Academy of Sciences, of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and of the Italian National Academy of Sciences. Buonanno is a Fellow of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation, and of the American Physical Society. She holds a research professorship at the University of Maryland, and honorary professorships at the Humboldt University in Berlin, and at the University of Potsdam.