Gravitational Waves

3 Credits.

In September 2015—one hundred years after Einstein predicted their existence—gravitational waves were directly detected for the first time by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration. This groundbreaking observation, from the merger of two black holes, marked the dawn of gravitational-wave astronomy. Just two years later, in 2017, a spectacular multi-messenger event followed: gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation across the spectrum were observed from the collision of two neutron stars. This course offers a concise introduction to the theory of gravitational waves, surveys the key astrophysical and cosmological sources of gravitational radiation, and explores how present and future detectors can be used to probe the universe. We will also examine the fundamentals of gravitational-wave data analysis and the strategies for coordinating electromagnetic follow-up observations.