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 Physics at Virginia

"What do we learn about gravity & nuclear physics from gravitational waves?"


Kent Yagi , University of Virginia - Department of Physics
[Host: Bob Jones]
ABSTRACT:

A hundred years after the prediction by Einstein, gravitational waves were directly detected for the first time in 2015 by LIGO, which marked the dawn of gravitational-wave astronomy. Gravitational waves are sourced by astrophysical compact objects, such as black holes and neutron stars. Due to their extremely large gravitational field and compactness, they offer us natural testbeds to probe strong-field gravity and dense matter physics. In this talk, I first give an overview of the current status of gravitational-wave observations. Next, I explain how well one can test General Relativity, constrain the equation of state of nuclear matter and measure nuclear parameters with gravitational waves. I also comment on how one can combine gravitational-wave information with the recent measurement of a neutron star radius by an X-ray payload NICER to further probe nuclear physics.

Colloquium
Friday, January 24, 2020
3:30 PM
Physics Building, Room 204
Note special room.

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