WI Seminar with Katerina Chatziioannou

Abstract: In January 2025, the twin LIGO detectors recorded the loudest signal observed to date from the merger of two black holes. GW250114 offers unprecedented clarity in the strong gravity processes by which black holes merge and settle into quiescence. In this talk I will describe two tests of fundamental gravity: a spectroscopic test of the nature of the final Kerr black hole and a test of Hawking’s area law.