CGCA Seminar – Hector Silva

Prof. Hector Silva, Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The ringing of a different bell: quasinormal modes and their excitation beyond general relativity

The inference of quasinormal mode frequencies from the ringdown part of gravitational-wave signals produced by the coalescence of black hole binaries can be used to infer the mass and spin of the remnant black hole and, possibly, test general relativity and extensions thereof in the strong-field regime. In this seminar, I will share some findings of a long-term project aimed at studying the quasinormal-mode spectrum of black holes beyond general relativity, and how these modes are excited given an initial perturbation. I will interpret these findings from an effective-field-theory perspective, and discuss some (a priori!) surprising consequences.

The CGCA Friday Seminar Series is hosted by the Center for Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. These seminars cover a broad number of topics related to the Center’s research areas. Talk titles and abstracts will be posted when available.