Physics Colloquium – Amanda Baylor

Early Warning of Gravitational Waves from Neutron Star Mergers

Amanda Baylor
Graduate Student
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

For the past decade, ground-based gravitational-wave observatories have been making detections of ripples in the fabric of spacetime from the mergers of black holes and neutron stars. Mergers involving at least one neutron star could also produce electromagnetic counterparts which may reveal new insights into the physics of these astrophysical phenomena. However, if electromagnetic observatories are not pointed at the location of the source prior to merger, we miss vital information about the physics of merger. This presents a need for early-warning alerts, which are alerts that are sent to observatories once a gravitational wave has been detected but before the objects collide and merge.

This talk will provide an overview of gravitational-wave physics from detection to data analysis and discuss the prospects for early-warning detection of neutron star mergers.